Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Teacher shortages are at their worst level for 36 years, Ofsted chief Mike Tomlinson claimed today.
Four in 10 teachers now leave the profession before they have completed three years in the classroom, the Chief Inspector of Schools said.
"I think over my period of time in education this is about the third major cycle of this sort," Mr Tomlinson, who began teaching in 1965, told The Guardian.
"I do think this is probably the worse of the three ... It is worse this time, more widespread."
He urged the Government to do more to retain teachers who, after three years in the profession, were on salaries that offered them little hope of getting on the property ladder.
But the Department for Education dismissed the claims. "The fact is there are more teachers in our classrooms today than in any year since 1984," said a DfE spokeswoman.
"Our focus remains committed to teacher recruitment and there are 12,000 more teachers in our classrooms today than in 1998. "We set up a major independent review of teacher workloads and we've recruited 25,000 new teaching assistants since 1999 to give teachers more direct support in the classroom.
"These measures have helped reverse an eight–year decline in teacher recruitment so there are now more teachers in our classrooms than in any year since 1984."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments