Graduates Find Teaching Career "Unappealing"

A survey by the MORI Social Research Institute reveals graduates think teaching is poorly paid, of low status and hard work.

New research from the Social Research Institute shows people who have the qualifications to take up a teaching career have a much poorer impression of the profession than other members of the public. The apparent day-to-day disadvantages of a teaching career greatly outweigh the personal and social advantages, as far as many graduates are concerned.

The findings are released as Lord Puttnam, chairman of the General Teaching Council in England, announced "a ten-point plan to address concerns over teacher shortages by improving policies for keeping teachers in the profession" [www.gtce.org.uk]. Teaching unions have also called on the government to take steps to tackle the recruitment crisis in UK schools.

In the survey, a majority of adults (68%) describe teaching as hard work. But those with a degree are significantly more likely to think this than people who either have lower levels of qualifications or none at all (80% compared to 65%).

Graduates also feel teachers' pay and professional esteem are no compensation for workload - almost half (47%) see teaching as poorly paid compared with just over one-in-four other adults (27%), while over two-fifths of graduates (42%) describe teaching as a job held in low regard, compared to under a fifth (19%) of other adults. More positively, though, graduates are much more likely than non-graduates to think of teaching as a rewarding and enjoyable job (48% compared with 34%).

Amongst survey respondents as a whole, the majority (73%) point to improved discipline in schools as the measure most likely to attract more people into teaching, or to encourage existing teachers to remain in the profession.

However, graduates are more likely than non-graduates to also highlight measures such as better pay (72% compared with 58%), less bureaucracy and paperwork (70% compared with 44%), better resourcing of schools (66% compared with 48%) and higher professional status in the eyes of the public (61% compared with 26%).

This research suggests more needs to be done to redress this imbalance if graduates are to consider teaching as a career.

Technical detailsTwo questions were placed on MORI's Omnibus, and a nationally representative quota sample of 2017 adults was interviewed throughout Great Britain by MORI/Field & Tab across 194 constituency-based sampling points. Interviews were carried out using CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing) face-to-face in respondents' homes between April 19th and 24th, 2001. Data have been weighted to reflect the national population profile.