Teacher vacancies at Portsmouth schools rise significantly as 'decade of real terms pay cuts' and workload pressures blamed

Data from teaching jobs site TeachVac shows a significant rise in primary and secondary school vacancies last year. In total, 408 vacancies were posted on its website, 82 per cent more than 224 in 2021.

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Of last year’s total, 125 were advertised by primary schools and 283 by secondary schools. Teacher vacancies increased significantly in 2022 as the profession faced increasing recruitment and retention pressures following the Covid-19 pandemic – job listings on TeachVac increased from 64,283 in 2021 to 107,104 last year.

Some jobs can be listed more than once if they are not initially filled, and not every teaching vacancy is posted to the TeachVac site.

General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Geoff Barton, said: ‘This is the result of a decade of real terms pay cuts which have eroded the value of salaries and workload pressures caused by government underfunding of education, leaving staff doing more work with fewer resources.

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‘If schools cannot put teachers in front of classes, they cannot possibly maintain and improve educational standards. The government must work with the profession on a strategy to improve teacher recruitment and retention and back this up with sufficient funding.’

A Department of Education spokeswoman said tax-free bursaries worth up to £27,000 and a new £3,000 premium encourages trainees. They added: ‘We are making the highest pay awards in a generation – 5 per cent for experienced teachers and more for those early in their careers, including an up to 8.9 per cent increase in starting salary.’