More ballots on teacher shortages

Unions say staff are worn out, covering vacancies

England's biggest teachers' union, the NUT, is balloting members on refusing to cover unfilled staff vacancies in another eight areas.

New ballots:

Hertfordshire

Sandwell

Hartlepool

Ipswich

Liverpool

Barnsley

Medway Towns

Rochdale

The union says the ballots are being held in response to calls from members in those areas and schools who are suffering excessive workloads as a result of the shortages.

Members of the NUT and the other main union, the NASUWT, have voted already in greater London and Doncaster not to cover for absent colleagues.

Ongoing:

Leicester

Middlesbrough

Nottingham

Portsmouth

Southampton

Manchester

Reading

Kent

The new move comes as a survey suggested that the number of unfilled vacancies in secondary schools in England and Wales had more than doubled since last summer.

The NUT's general secretary, Doug McAvoy, said: "In addition to around a thousand schools in London where action will begin on March 12, our members from Liverpool to Southampton are feeling the impact of the shortages.

'Exploited'

"It is the failure of successive government's which has created this situation. It is their refusal to recognise the problem which has caused the pressure for action from our members.

"They are tired of being exploited and of their commitment to their pupils being taken for granted.

"The government's claim that only a handful of schools have problems of unfilled vacancies is shown to be false by the increasing number of teachers seeking protection."

The survey of 876 secondary schools, carried out by the Secondary Heads Association and the Times Educational Supplement (TES), suggests they had 2,410 vacancies last month.

Care is needed because the sample was self-selecting - and the figure of 10,000 is arrived at by assuming this represents the picture across all 3,800 or so secondary schools.

A previous survey, carried out during the summer holiday and reported last September, suggested on the same basis that 4,000 posts were vacant.

Shortage of temps

One in 25 of the schools which replied to the new survey had seven or more vacancies. Three schools had 13.

The lack of qualified teachers has clearly reached the stage where it is affecting the quality of education

Head teachers' leader John Dunford

Advertisements of teachers' jobs in the TES are said to be at least 50% above the level they would expect at this time of year.

And supply agencies estimate that at least 20,000 temporary vacancies every week are not being filled because of the shortage of teachers.

Head teachers report going to almost any lengths to make their schools' timetables work without sending pupils home, including simultaneously supervising several lessons themselves.

Four heads said they had sent pupils home without attracting media attention. Others said they were on the brink of doing so.

Action ballot

The problem is most acute in London and the South East, but the survey suggests the situation is getting worse in the Midlands and the North East.

The general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, John Dunford, said: "This illustrates the super-human efforts of heads and senior managers to keep schools running.

"But the lack of qualified teachers has clearly reached the stage where it is affecting the quality of education and must put at risk the government's improvement agenda.

"Emergency measures are required to help schools and supply teacher agencies to bring more qualified teachers into the classroom."

Opposition talk of 'crisis'

The government stresses the efforts it is making to recruit and retain teachers - with an average 10% increase in pay for classroom teachers this year.

It acknowledges there is a problem. But official figures suggest the vacancy rate in secondary schools is only 0.8% - although that was 14% higher than a year ago.

The Liberal Democrat education spokesman, Phil Willis, said: "This survey shows the true depth of the crisis facing our schools.

"Unlike government statistics, which fail to show how many teachers are being forced to teach outside their subject area, these figures reveal the extent of the problem."

What would show this is the Curriculum and Staffing Survey, previously carried out in 1992 and 1996 - but not last year.

Mr Willis said that when he had raised the issue in Parliament, the School Standards Minister, Estelle Morris, had replied that "the possibility of conducting a further secondary curriculum and staffing survey in 2001-02 is being considered."

The shadow education secretary, Theresa May, said: "Conservatives have been saying for months this is a crisis of major proportions which the government is either incapable of dealing with or choosing to ignore.

"I am sure the thousands of teachers at the sharp end of the shortages and tens of thousands of parents nationwide would not share Mr Blunkett's complacent attitude."