Shout out to my ex
The DfE’s request that former teachers who have “the skills and time to return to the classroom” consider whether they might be able to volunteer in schools during the Spring term, to help schools cope with staff absences due to Omicron, has been met with predictable skepticism. Some objections are well founded. Might this simply magnify all the issues of supply teachers, who aren’t up to speed with curriculum sequencing in a particular school, and don’t know the pupils? Is it feasible for a mass expansion of the necessary checks to be made at speed over Christmas and January?
But far more of the objections — wearyingly, predictably, frustratingly — have been less constructive, and more another instance of negative carping from the sidelines. In particular, two of the main criticisms seem to be entirely ill founded.
Firstly,there’s the “how are a load of retirees in their 70s and 80s going to help?” question. To which the answer is, probably not that much. But fortunately, that’s not a problem. DfE have information on what is horribly called the Pool of Inactive Teachers — the PIT. These are state trained and qualified teachers who don’t teach in the profession anymore, and who are all aged under 60. And there’s a lot of them — about 350,000 in fact (a number that has been pretty consistent for years).
About half of this group are secondary specialists and half primary. Frustratingly, this number doesn’t break down by age, but we do know from two other data sources that a high proportion of them can reasonable be assumed to be young. Firstly, because the age data on those who have left teaching over the past ten years or so shows that a large minority are aged under 40 — about a third of those from the 2019 cohort who left.
And secondly, because a fair number of teachers leave the system and then return, and many of those, perhaps unsprisingly, are younger.
So we can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that — assuming a broadly consistent inflow and outflow from the PIT every year — perhaps a third to four tenths of the PIT are aged 40 or below, many of them have not left teaching that long ago, and could reasonably be expected to make a contribution should they wish to.
Secondly, we have the “so you want to send older teachers back into unsafe schools during a pandemic?” This is a serious question, and deserves to be answered seriously. Fortunately, it has been. A study looking at the first year of the pandemic (2020–2021), published in the BMJ, found that “Teachers not at increased risk of hospital admission or severe covid-19 during 2020–21 academic year”.
The study sought to compare the risks of teachers and their households to severe Covid, or being hospitalised, with two groups — healthcare workers, and the general population, accounting for the age and gender breakdown of teachers (the study was based in Scotland). It found that teachers were initially less likely to be hospitalised with Covid, and then in the later stages of the study, as likely as the general population (of equivalent ages). It concludes:
Compared with adults of working age who are otherwise similar, teachers and their household members were not found to be at increased risk of hospital admission with covid-19 and were found to be at lower risk of severe covid-19. These findings should reassure those who are engaged in face-to-face teaching.
The study was welcomed by the NEU, who called it (correctly) “very good news, and very reassuring”.
This scheme is therefore unlikely — pleasingly — lead to a surge of severe illness and hospitalisations among incoming teacher volunteers.
So the two main in-principle concerns which I’ve seen expressed above turn out not to be true. DfE is not proposing to recruit large numbers of older and vulnerable former teachers, and place them in unsafe working environments. We might hope that repeating such facts (including the BMJ study, which oddly I had to hunt to find, as opposed to hearing it in every single Ministerial speech) to be the end of such critiques. But I fear not.
Because what we are seeing — and what really grinds my gears — is that much of the objections to this scheme are simply performative criticism, and not grounded in good faith. I’ve seen attacks on Teach First (who are supporting the scheme and encouraging their Ambassadors to return) and other ex-teachers because they didn’t stay in classrooms — often from people who themselves are not in the classroom. I’ve seen loud and aggressive denunciations of pay and workload conditions for serving teachers as a reason not to participate, as if this were in any way relevant to a flexible, voluntary, short term scheme. I’ve seen people say they’re not participating because they don’t wan’t to bail this govt out. God knows I’ve got my disagreements with Boris Johnson. But attacking a scheme that seems purely non political, on political grounds, seems supremely petty.
Ultimately all of these performative criticisms miss the point. This isn’t about Conservative education policy. It’s not even about an attempt to solve workforce shortages by bringing former teachers back in permanently. It’s about recognising that the surge on cases may make the current teacher illness numbers and supply crunch worse. And it’s making a request — purely voluntary — for any former teacher who can help and who is qualified, to consider whether they can contribute in any way to helping address this issue.
Too many educators have taken the opportunity to attack this plan publicly and petulantly, or virtue signal that they Can’t Possibly Do This because they are Already Making A Contribution. Doing this has garlanded a fair few with those sweet, sweet social media likes. But taking the low road, as opposed to discussing in good faith the genuine practical issues in an effort to help resolve them, or — even better! — just concluding privately “you know what, I don’t fancy this”, or “I just can’t make it work in my circumstances”, or “I fear my subject knowledge is just too out of date” — is at best mean spirited, and at worst taking the opportunity to use the pressures that current schools and teachers are under as a pawn to further a wider set of grievances.
I think that DfE have create a laudable scheme. I hope it succeeds. I know that many teachers went into the profession as a calling: because of a moral purpose and a desire to help children. It seems to me that next term, that calling will get stronger. Not everyone can help. But if some can, I am sure it would be hugely appreciated. And that’s really the alpha and omega — and the omicron — of it.
