Schools an increasingly popular place to work

•    18,500 more teachers and support staff than 12 months ago.

•    Year-on-year improvement in teacher pupil ratios in primary and secondary schools.

ENGLAND – Schools minister Jim Knight has highlighted new figures showing the overall school workforce continuing to grow as evidence of the increasing popularity of working in schools in these challenging economic times.

In the provisional statistics published at the beginning of the month, figures show that the overall school workforce has grown by 18,500 over the last 12 months to 786,200, nearly a 50 per cent rise since 1997.

Related figures also recently released show applications to teacher training positions are up 22.7 per cent compared to the same period last year.

There are now 441,300 teachers, a rise of 41,000 over the last 12 years and 183,200 teaching assistants, a rise of 122,600 and over triple the number in 1997.

The overall pupil-adult and pupil-teacher ratios continue to improve year-on-year in primary schools and secondary schools, reaching their best ever levels.

Mr Knight said: “In these challenging economic times, people are seeing teaching and support staff positions in schools as increasingly appealing options, in part due to the attractive financial rewards put in place, but also due to the tremendous personal rewards that go with them.

“There are now fewer schools vacancies overall than this time last year and we are targeting high calibre candidates from industries which have been affected by the financial downturn, such as city workers to join the workforce next year.

“Teaching is now one of the most sought after professions, indeed a recent survey found teaching is now the top destination for university leavers thanks to increases in the average teacher’s salary by 19 per cent in real terms, cuts in bureaucracy and giving teachers tougher disciplinary powers.

“The latest figures on applications to teacher training courses are also very encouraging, with applications up 22.7 per cent on the same period in the previous year.”