Newly-qualified teachers quit UK for schools abroad due to abject pay and conditions

Newly-qualified teachers are planning to quit the UK to teach abroad because of abject pay and conditions in schools at home, new evidence has revealed.

Teacher-training courses across the country are warning of a rise in the number of trainees opting for international posts for their first job, attracted by higher salaries, more respect in and out of the classroom – and an escape from Ofsted.

The trend will exacerbate the teacher shortage crisis already hitting UK schools. Teacher vacancies in England have nearly doubled since before Covid. Vacancies posted by schools earlier this year were 93% higher than at the same point in 2019, data from the National Foundation for Educational Research shows.

But the government is missing its teacher-training targets year on year. The undershoot for secondary trainee entrants was 41% in 2022-23, with just 12,356 students enrolling. At primary level, 6,527 applicants were on courses in April this year, down from 8,100 in 2022.

Desperate headteachers are increasingly forced to use non-specialist teachers and long-term supply cover to teach classes, driving down pupil attainment and heaping extra work on already overstretched staff.

In evidence to MPs, tutors from the Institute of Education at Manchester University said that 15% of its primary cohort was planning to start careers overseas, with a further 19% still deciding whether to remain in the UK or work abroad, totalling more than 90 teachers.

“We notice a small but increasing trend of trainees opting for an international school for their first post,” they said in a submission to the Commons education committee inquiry into teacher recruitment and retention. “Anecdotally, our trainees believe that the terms and conditions for teachers working in international schools are more attractive.”

Other teacher trainers also highlighted the trend: “Potential trainees are interested in more mobile career opportunities, and there is an increased temptation to utilise their qualification, and receive higher salaries and higher professional regard, by teaching abroad,” said a group submission, which included Sheffield, King’s College London, Cambridge, Bristol and Warwick universities.

York University academics told MPs that pay for early-career teachers was often below the level of training bursaries or scholarships but just above the threshold for student loan repayments, leaving them out of pocket and unable to afford rent, mortgages and to feed their families.

“Trainees are left asking two key questions as they consider a first post,” said the written evidence. “Where can I afford to live and work and could I earn more abroad?”

International schools are booming. Some 6.5 million students are now enrolled in international schools worldwide, according to educational consultancy ISC Research. A Council of British International Schools survey found nearly two-thirds of members increased their student numbers last year.

Ian Hartwright, head of policy for the National Association of Head Teachers, said the longstanding and severe teacher recruitment crisis in England’s schools was being acutely felt by those who remain. “Teachers and school leaders are working under crippling workloads and pressure that results from high-stakes accountability measures, rising poverty, and the lack of specialist health and therapeutic services that schools need to support pupils.

“The government’s chronic underfunding of schools over the last decade has resulted in the loss of teaching assistants and other critical support staff.”