Newspaper Article

Comment & Analysis: Letter: Are teachers quitters?

Name and address supplied, Ruth Heilbronn, Joe Phillips, WJ Heitler, Maurice Harford, Bob Gough

2003

Overview

Everyone focuses on recruiting new teachers, only to lose them in the first few years. It is because they look at their older colleagues and say to themselves: \"I don't want to be like him/her in 20 years' time\". If you don't want to become a head or deputy you are faced with a very narrow outlook with no break from classroom teaching and countless initiatives and distractions. And that's not even to mention the pay. I have many friends who teach, and exactly the same attitude applies: the good ones (the majority) are positive, caring and like their jobs and realise nothing comes easy. The duff ones are vociferous in their condemnation of anyone who demands high standards and hard work and they will move on, which in the long run is to the benefit of the teaching profession. * Your headline was quite alarming. However, on reading the accompanying article, I eventually (paragraph 11) discovered that more than half of these teachers were actually expecting to retire. But I suppose a headline proclaiming \"A sixth of teachers plan to quit\" doesn't have quite the same punch. More accuracy, but less punch.

• Publisher: Guardian News & Media Limited