THE Government’s plan to recruit 6,5000 additional school teachers to counter problems with staff retention is “one of our biggest priorities”, according to Education Minister Catherine McKinnell.
She told GB News: “We’re expecting results this year to be in line with last year and I think we do need to remember that this is a cohort of young people that have overcome incredible challenges in their time in secondary education.
“They were the generation of children that have gone through Covid, and they’ve experienced a huge amount, so they should be incredibly proud today of their achievements and it is incredibly exciting.
“It’s also incredibly nerve wracking for these young people. I know they’re waiting for their results and it’s a very exciting day.
“I think it’s a day of celebration of these young people and also the teachers that have worked incredibly hard to get them to this point today.”
Asked how the Government is going to deal with the problem of retaining teachers, she said: “This is one of our biggest priorities, to really make sure that every child has the teachers they need in the subjects that they need as well.
“Because that’s one of the big challenges we’ve seen in particular subject areas where there have been shortages, and I don’t think any child should be taught by a teacher that isn’t a specialist in what they are teaching.
“It’s so important that we make sure we get teachers into schools and we meet our pledge, which is 6,500 additional teachers in our system to ensure that children get the teachers they need and also our schools have that support and robustness to really give children the best chance in life.
“We know that education is one of the biggest opportunities we have as a government to give every young person those chances in life and to break down those barriers to opportunity.
“We know that many children will do very well in their results today, but we also know that there’s a big gap still across the country. We’ve seen outcomes in regions like the North East, like mine, not as strong as in other areas of the country.
“We really want to close that gap and give every opportunity, every child, the opportunity to succeed.”
She said fears over the effects of imposition of VAT on private school fees were being exaggerated: “A lot of this is scaremongering, really, because we’ve been very clear for some time about our plans to make sure that we focus as much as possible on, as we’ve discussed, getting our teachers into our state schools and really fixing our state school system, where 93% of our children are educated,
“We’ve been very clear about how we’re going to pay for that and the tax plans that we have to do that. So, there’s been fair warning of this and I think that schools as well need to cut their cloth accordingly and make decisions about the offer that they give to parents.
“These are businesses at the end of the day and these are choices that schools have to make. A lot of the scaremongering about movement of children I think has been overblown.
“There are very clear reports that say that there won’t be the impact that’s being suggested. But more than anything else, we really just want to focus on our state schools to make sure they have the investment they need, and to really celebrate the success today that these young people are proving is the outcome of a good state education.”
