I asked the Government to disclose the scale of the teacher shortage in Oldham. Their answer was shocking.

IT WOULD be an understatement to say that Oldham’s schools are being unfairly treated under the Tory government. Oldham schools are receiving blow after blow, from failed experiments like Collective Spirit Free School, which those in charge have simply walked away from; to funding cuts of £480 per-pupil.

Slowly ticking along in the background, with potential for disaster for our schools, is the shortage of properly qualified teachers. I asked the Government to disclose how big a problem this is and the answer was shocking. Even more shocking is that the teacher gap is being plugged directly with teaching assistants, rather than properly qualified teachers.

Over the past 5 years the education sector in Oldham has shrunk by 100 teachers. Despite the number of teachers growing nationally, some places are not receiving the numbers needed. Birmingham, Manchester and London in particular – the latter accounting for one third of teacher vacancies – are struggling to fill posts.

Plus there’s a shortage of specialist subject teachers. For example, there was a 3000 (20%) shortfall in the number of Maths teachers required between 2015 and 2016. That’s just one year alone! And Maths isn’t the only subject struggling – general science is short of teachers too.

At the other end of the picture there’s a record number of teachers leaving the sector, either changing profession, retiring or going on maternity leave.

Should we really be surprised by this? Teachers, like so many other public sector workers are not valued by the Tories. My colleague Angela Rayner recently uncovered that teacher salaries are undercut by £5000 a year. It goes to show that the public sector pay cap, which the Tories recently voted to keep in place, is eroding both salaries and recruitment efforts.

As I mention above, another concern is that these shortfalls are being plugged by teaching assistants, who don’t have the skills and knowledge akin to qualified teachers. While Oldham has lost 100 teachers, the gaps have been filled directly with 100 teaching assistants.

While teaching assistants play a vital role in the classroom,  they are not the immediate answer to the teacher shortage.

So we need the Government to stop sitting on its hands and come up with solutions, and fast. A sensible place to start would be lifting the 1% public sector pay cap and showing teachers that we value their hard work.