Commenting on EPI’s new tool which finds that multi-academy trusts (MATs) have higher teacher turnover than other school groups, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“It does students no good to be taught by three different teachers in a given subject within the space of a year, often with no specialism in the area they are teaching. This is now, sadly, commonplace. That is why the recruitment and retention crisis is such an urgent issue for the present and any future government.
“The EPI highlights that this problem is even greater within multi-academy trusts, which is yet further evidence that the obsession with forcing schools into trusts has nothing to do with what is best for education. There has been a fundamental failure by successive Conservative governments to make teaching attractive and paid well enough for people to stay. The expansion of academies has been at the heart of this failure.
“EPI is right to call attention to the problem of an inspection and accountability system that is largely indifferent to the individual circumstances of different schools and pupil demographics. We need a fundamental change in this system to ensure that decisions are taken in the best interests of schools, pupils and their communities. This would include replacing Ofsted.”