Fall in teacher vacancy rate 'disguises government complacency

The government was yesterday accused of complacency over ongoing teacher shortages, after publishing new figures which show that while the overall national vacancy rate has fallen slightly, in most areas in England beyond London and the south-east region the situation has got worse.

The vacancy rate - as a proportion of teachers in post - fell from 1.4% to 1.2% in 2001, reversing the jump from 0.8% to 1.4%in 2000.

The Department for Education and Skills said that, taking into account an aggregation of full-time and part-time staff, there were now 419,600 full- time equivalent teachers - an increase of 9,400 (2.3%) on the previous year. But a breakdown of the figures reveal that over 6,000 teaching posts are being filled by teachers on short-term contracts, while there are 7,500 unqualified "instructors" teaching in classrooms who have no plans to undergo training. The figures are based on a census in January of all local education authorities in England

The shadow education secretary, Damian Green, said: "If the government is portraying this as good news then it shows just how complacent they are. As ever, if you look behind the figures at the small print you can find the truth. Teacher vacancies rose in more regions than they fell in the last year. In fact, if you disregard London there has been no fall at all. Given the increasing difficulties in finding affordable housing in London, the government cannot be confident of maintaining the fall in the London area."

Phil Willis, the Liberal Democrat education spokesman, said: "When Labour came to power there were 2,500 unqualified teachers taking our children's classes.

"This number has risen every year since then. To have 8,000 unqualified staff teaching our children is completely unacceptable. Additionally, the increase in unqualified staff masks the real shortage of teachers in our schools. Unqualified staff have been used to contain vacancies nationally, to just below last year's record levels."

But the education secretary, Estelle Morris, insisted the government was not being complacent: "Our targeted policies to improve recruitment and retention are delivering results. This is true for both primary and secondary schools. Fewer vacancies and 9,400 more teachers means we can raise standards further."

She also hailed a reduction in average class sizes across nursery, primary and secondary schools. They fell by 0.4 % in primary schools and 0.1 % in secondary schools.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Associa tion of Head Teachers, said: "Clearly schools have started to repair the damage caused by years of staffing cuts, but there are still too many temporary and supply teachers covering up real vacancies."

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said: "The small fall in teacher vacancies disguises the extent of the crisis in which the larger number of recruits to the profession is offset by loss of many good young teachers."

Eamonn O'Kane, general secretary of the National Association of School Masters Union of Women Teachers, said: "The government's strategies to date have merely been sticking plaster solutions to a deep wound."