Commenting on Rishi Sunak’s intention to reform A-levels with a British Baccalaureate, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"The Prime Minister's sketchy proposal to introduce a British baccalaureate shows that this is a government completely out of touch with the realities on the ground. Once again, he has failed to recognise that we have a deep teacher recruitment and retention crisis.
"The Government has not recruited or retained sufficient English and maths teachers to educate 11-to-16-year-olds. One in six English teachers and one in five maths teachers do not have a relevant post-A-level qualification. This already parlous situation will deteriorate because last year the Government missed its recruitment target for secondary teachers by 41%, and this year they will only recruit half the necessary number of graduates to train as secondary teachers.
"We need a government that attends above all to the problems that are driving education into crisis. Yet again an education policy announcement has come via a back-of-the-envelope plan from Number 10 with no discussion at the Department for Education with the unions and profession. Any reforms need to be done in consultation with the education sector to avoid yet more unworkable or inadequate policy being dreamt up as a result of no input from the profession"