Recruitment companies paid £10m to look abroad for solution to teacher crisis

The UK Government is paying recruitment consultancies £10 million to scout abroad for teachers

The shortage of teachers is so severe that it is causing the Government to pay recruitment consultancies £10 million to scout for them abroad.

A tender, highlighted by research group Tussell, revealed that Global consultancies including Reed, Randstad and Prospero have been put on a centralised roster for head teachers to use when struggling to recruit British staff.

Each of the bidders will be paid £1.4million for their work.

The number of graduates entering teaching is falling, just as secondary schools are about to experience a big influx of pupils.

Teaching Unions say many new teachers are leaving the profession, with 84 percent of leavers citing high workloads. Less than three-quarters of those who qualified in 2013 were still teaching at the end of 2016.

Paul Whiteman, of the National Association of Head Teachers, told the Evening Standard: “The Government is still failing to provide enough teachers for our growing school population.”

It is predicted that by next year the UK will have the same number of secondary school pupils as in 2007 when there were 13,000 more secondary teachers.

A spokesman for the Association of School and College Lecturers welcomed the recruiters’ tender, saying to the Evening Standard: “A lot of schools are looking to New Zealand, Canada and South Africa and recruiting directly, but that is not cost-effective. It is logical to have a national system.”

As part of the contract “acclimatisation” help is included, reflecting the difficulty many teachers have in adapting to working in some UK schools, with unions highlighting the “shock” teachers from the Commonwealth have at the lack of discipline among students.

An education department spokesman said eight percent of teachers were from abroad and that it was working to address the challenges faced by some schools.

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