Teachers' drop-out rate is costing millions

Classroom upheaval: Unions blame record levels of retirement on ill health caused by stress of cuts and rising class sizes

CHRIS BLACKHURST

Westminster Correspondent

Teachers taking early retirement are putting a huge strain on the public purse as their numbers reach record levels, it is reported today. The Government claims not to know what is behind the increase.

Last year, 6,075 teachers left the profession prematurely through ill health, more than double the 1985 figure of 2,698.

The figures, which are contained in a report from the National Audit Office (NAO), the public finance watchdog, will fuel the claims of teachers' unions that their members are being placed under an intolerable strain by education cuts and large classes.

When those not ill but wishing to leave and take advantage of the Government's pensions and superannuation scheme are included, the annual average total of teachers retiring early has shot up from 11,624 to 17,187. Overall in the last decade, 150,000 teachers in the state and independent sectors have left the profession. Teachers in independent schools still qualify for the Government-financed scheme. Last year alone, the cost to the taxpayer of those leaving was pounds 134m.

In the report, Sir John Bourn, the Comptroller and Auditor General, and head of the NAO, criticised the lack of information about the numbers of teachers resigning. He said the Teachers' Pensions Agency, part of the Department for Education, has no "firm information" on the reasons for the increase in teachers quitting through ill health. Part of the problem, Sir John said, is that the agency is not receiving adequate information, or applications are being made even before a teacher has had medical treatment.

But now, Sir John said, it is taking a tougher attitude: "The agency have taken action designed to ensure that the medical criteria for early retirement on ill-health are applied more consistently and rigorously as the annual number of such cases has more than doubled to over 6,000 over the last 10 years."

The total cost to the taxpayer is only assessed at five-year intervals. Latest figures from the Government Actuary cover the period to 31 March 1986 and showed a shortfall between teachers' own pension contributions and payments, of pounds 1.55bn. The actuary is working on the next review for the five years to March 1991.

Attempts by the Government to tackle the problem by forcing local education authorities and independent employers to contribute more to the national superannuation scheme are unlikely to be enough. Teachers pay 6 per cent of their salaries, while employers pay 8.05 per cent. By making employers pay more, the Government aimed to wipe out the shortfall over 40 years.

But that calculation was based on the actuary's 1986 review. Since then, as Sir John has confirmed, the number retiring early has soared, so that the contributions from employers will have to rise further. "The Department expects that the review ... will indicate that the deficit on the scheme has grown. This will lead to a substantial increase in employers' contributions if the policy on early retirements remains unchanged," Sir John warned.

He is heavily critical of the Department for Education for claiming not to know why so many teachers are retiring and for reviewing the cost to the taxpayer only at five year intervals. "I view with some concern the financial strains placed on the Teachers' Superannuation Scheme as a consequence of the increasingly high level of early retirements, particularly since the Department are not clear as to the underlying causes for this. I am also concerned at the delay in completing the actuarial review of the Scheme".

Sir John said that it was not fair to ask the employers to contribute more to relieve a burden which should have been foreseen sooner.