More needs to be done to support existing teachers and enhance their experience of the profession, according to an expert.

Kate Crowhurst, a former teacher and currently an MPhil student in politics, development and democratic education at the University of Cambridge, explains that this is the first step needed to address the UK’s teacher shortage crisis.

Writing in the Telegraph, she said that instead of investing in short-term recruitment programmes as a priority response to this, what policymakers and school leaders should be focusing on keeping individuals in the profession.

“The teacher shortage has its roots not in teacher recruitment but in retainment,” Ms Crowhurst outlined.

“I can speak on this from experience as, like two fifths of teachers, I have left classroom teaching after less than five years, no longer willing to put up and shut up in an inherently flawed education system that pays more heed to statistics over teacher experience.”

The challenge is the government, she argues, because instead of solving the problem of attracting and retaining teachers, they are making it worse with the “endless recycling of policies”.

Ms Crowhurst said that this results in more bureaucracy, more stresses and more work. Against this backdrop it is no surprise that the profession is considered to be one of the toughest, despite the fact it is also one of the most important.

In its annual report, released earlier this month, Ofsted highlighted that over the last five years the number of new teachers entering the profession has fallen by 16 per cent.

The chief inspector of Ofsted Sir Michael Wilshaw commented at the time that if this continues, the UK runs the risk of creating a “polarised education system” that would have a damaging effect on the nation.