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The Professional Teacher

Support for teaching professionals in the classroom and beyond
Education in the News

Why is there a teacher shortage?

Ruth Tarrant

10th December 2015

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Brian Lightman, leader of the ASCL headteachers' union, has warned this week that the UK's teacher shortage is now a national crisis, especially in poor and challenging areas of the country. On average schools are spending £10,000 to fill a single vacancy, with 59% of schools reportedly struggling to find applicants and a further 20% unable to attract any applicants. So why is it increasingly difficult to fill vacancies?

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Ruth Tarrant

Ruth has been Subject Lead in Economics at tutor2u for many years after a career of teaching Economics, Business, Politics and Maths in a range of secondary schools. She is a highly experienced A level Economics Examiner, and also teaches undergraduate Economics on a very part-time basis at the University of Oxford. Ruth is passionate about making economics fun, engaging and accessible.

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