17,000 school teachers are unqualified

The number of unqualified teachers in British?state schools has risen six-fold in the past 11 years to nearly 17,000, it emerged yesterday.

There were 2,940 teachers yet to reach the British standard of ‘qualified teacher status’ in 1997 but the figure had risen to 16,710 by 2007.

Two-thirds of them were hired from abroad, fuelling fears that British teachers were deserting the profession.

‘Increasing problems in many schools with discipline and bureaucracy simply put many people off,’ said Michael Gove, shadow children’s secretary, who obtained the figures in a parliamentary question to schools minister Jim Knight.

But the Department for Children, Schools and Families insisted that, ‘the overwhelming majority of overseas trained teachers will have qualified in their home countries to an excellent standard.’

He was also keen to stress that these teachers were only to be hired as a last resort, if no qualified British teachers applied. It is also an expectation that teachers from abroad convert thei qualifications to the British standard within four years.