Population booms in many areas - London being the primary example - coupled with a kink in the pipeline of new top teaching talent, has left the government looking at ways to fill vacant teaching jobs.  

Recent retirees

The latest proposal could see pensioners encouraged to come out of retirement and retrain as teachers. The government wants to use the expertise of recently retired people to help educate thousands of British youngsters. The focus will be on attracting those retirees with skills in sciences and engineering.

These ideas come from the 2020 Group, a panel of senior Conservatives, whom George Osborne tasked with providing some policies for the upcoming election manifesto.

One minister told The Telegraph: "It's a very attractive idea. We have a big shortage particularly of high quality maths, English and engineering teachers."

In an effort to unlock the skills the retirees have, it is thought they would be fast-tracked with special training courses before they begin their teaching jobs in schools.

David Cameron has already said that young people need to view English and maths as vocational subjects, stating: "I tell my children there is not a job in the world that does not require English and maths.

"My son says what about football players? I say well you have got to be able to read the contract and count the money. Everything requires English and maths."

Computers

It was only last week when the idea of using computers to cover some teaching tasks was mooted. A new flagship 'free school' will replace teachers with computers for some day-to-day lessons from 2016.

Taking its cue from a scheme in the US, this proposal has be heralded as a way of helping teachers manage their time in a more efficient manner, but Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said: "The use of the word "efficiencies" is all very nice but what it really means is cuts."

PhD students

Another plan from the government includes asking PhD students specialising in science and engineering subjects to take inflated salaries. People with PhDs in maths and physics would be paid a £40,000 starting salary, much higher than the average starting salary of £21,600 for newly-qualified teachers in the state sector. 

Why not let teachers teach?

In TLTP Education's role as a teaching recruitment specialist the company has seen the talent that can be produced via traditional means.

Looking elsewhere to fill the void could be both a waste of money and simply not effective enough to provide a long-term solution to the teaching job issues in the UK. While drafting help from retirees, PhDs and PCs, all the government is doing is further motivating the existing workforce and lessening the incentives to join the teaching profession via the traditional manner.

If the government truly wants to build a sustainable and world-class schools system it needs to begin its search much closer to home and look at the way it is treating teachers.

It needs to take the lead in creating a society in which teachers are revered, and top class maths and science graduates do not need to be persuaded to join the profession - they actively pick it over other commercial options they may have.

Posted by Darryl Mydat