Are we now experiencing a cost-of-teaching crisis?

As industrial action continues, job satisfaction plummets and the recruitment and retention crisis worsens, new research into how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting the schools workforce reveals a sector that is being brought to its knees due to a lack of investment.

Our survey of over 1,000 education workers has found that the current crisis is manifesting two-fold for school staff, who are not only facing extraordinary price hikes in their personal lives but are also covering the increasing costs of classroom resources due to over-stretched school budgets. These costs are being borne by the same teachers who have seen a real-terms pay cut of some 23 per cent over the past 13 years.

Our findings are stark, and show the time has well and truly come for the burden of responsibility to lift from school staff who are implicitly expected to cover the shortfall in funding and ensure students receive the resources they need for their education. It is a responsibility they simply cannot (and shouldn’t have to) afford.

When it comes to the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on their own lives, 78 per cent of our respondents (who include teachers and teaching assistants) said they had restricted turning on their heating this winter. Sixty-four per cent are foregoing putting money into savings and, perhaps most shockingly, one in five respondents said they have picked up a second job to cover their increasing costs.

Those who work in school settings already face the extreme demands of increased workloads, in large part because of the recruitment and retention crisis and the ongoing and multi-faceted repercussions of the pandemic. Pushing dedicated professionals into finding work elsewhere is clearly not a sustainable workforce strategy, and is only likely to drive even more staff out of schools permanently as they find that other sectors provide more adequate remuneration and a better work-life balance.

Equally striking is our finding that one-quarter of respondents say their financial situation has impacted their ability to take industrial action. This implies that the government’s assessment of teachers’ appetite for strike action is substantially under-inflated. But worse, perhaps: if teachers are in such a financially precarious situation that they can’t harness collective bargaining, then the relationship between staff and government appears to be almost irreparably broken.  

This all reflects a dysfunctional sector that doesn’t prioritise its staff. Indeed, three-quarters of respondents said that their current financial situation is affecting their mental health and wellbeing. And contrary to tabloid reports this weekend calling out striking teachers for planning ‘samba lessons and posh lunches when they should be teaching’, 80 per cent of our respondents said they were foregoing dining out in order to save money. Nor is it just the small luxuries like restaurant meals and cinema trips that have taken a hit; 16 per cent said they have made the biggest cutbacks in groceries and food.

For a sector facing a deep recruitment and retention crisis, our findings underline the risk that financial pressures pose to retaining high-quality educators. They indicate that teaching is now a profession where staff cannot save for the future, pay their bills or implement their right to strike. They are increasingly unable even to reward themselves for their hard work, and the toll on their mental health and wellbeing is widespread.  

Yet it also appears to be the case that they continue to be expected to plug gaps in funding and family finances in their communities by providing classroom resources from their own pockets.

With recruitment and retention already in dire straits and so many already taking second jobs,  the only conclusion we can draw is that the long-term sustainability of the sector demands urgent action. Without a significant increase in school funding, in part to support better pay for teachers, the talent pipeline will continue to shrink.