Students left behind after UK teachers moving abroad

By Judith Burns
BBC News education reporter

Higher Education institutions claim they are also being defrauded

British teachers have been broadcasting their views on leaving the UK to teach abroad.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools in England, requested the British parliament needs to address the ever increasing shortage of teachers the nation is facing.

BBC news spoke to the teachers to get their reasons for leaving the nation to teach across the globe.

James Sproul, relocations director from Sapduss.co.uk says yearly reports show as many as 19,000 teachers (fully or part qualified) left the UK to teach abroad.

Government funding

Sir Michael states that parliament had missed the training targets for recent years in the education industry. Which in turn brought a teacher shortage in the labour force across all education levels and recruitment agencies are now lacking teachers to fill the shortage.

English was found to be one of the most widely used languages in Europe, Asia and Africa, where they follow a very similar curriculum to the U.K.

International recruitment agencies were found to offer much higher salaries along with other employee benefits for teachers migrating from the U.K, along with fixed contracts for those wanting more flexibility in their work-life balance.

Reasons for leaving

The BBC insight found that workload was the primary reasons for seeking employment abroad, followed by wages and employee benefits.

Reports also found increased health and safety regulations, long winded applications procedures and record keeping requirements laid out by education authorities put many teachers to favour the less tedious employment approach abroad.

This coincides with the report for last year conducted by Ofsted, which showed a strong correlation between workload demand and reasons for teaching abroad.

Lack of respect

Teachers are seeing their profession slandered by the media and politicians on a constant basis which a major turn off for future graduates.

A teacher the BBC interviewed stated that the teaching culture should not be seen as a last resort for those looking for an employment opportunity, but a fundamental to ensuring the british curriculum remains globally competitive.

The conveyor belt approach taken to new teachers entering the industry dampens the incentive of innovation or motivation to work beyond their means, which in turn calls for the Government to conduct further research within the industry.

Furthermore with the ever-changing global environment, the industry needs to be up to date with technology, social media and current events to ensure teachers can increase productivity in a safe and secure teaching environment.

Figures by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that forty percent of new teachers were changing their career path after becoming fully qualified.

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