Recruitment of Teachers

Baroness Coussins Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I completely agree with the noble Lord about the challenges, not just that individual teachers have in the classroom, but that we have in attracting people to and keeping them in the profession. He has identified a range of areas that we need to make progress on as a Government and on which we are already taking action. I have mentioned some of the proposals around retention. The noble Lord is right about teacher workload and well-being. Our improved workload and well-being for school staff service, developed alongside school leaders, contains a whole range of resources to enable schools to review and reduce workload and improve staff well-being. On the other pressures that happen outside school but which children bring into school, we will have the opportunity during the forthcoming Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to consider the other initiatives that the Government are taking to support the most vulnerable children, strengthen our children’s social care services and, through a whole range of other provisions, make sure that children are able to arrive at school appropriately supported and ready to learn.

[Baroness Coussins (CB)]

My Lords, two-thirds of modern language teachers are EU nationals. The shortage of qualified MFL teachers is second only to maths. Schools and teacher organisations have told the APPG on Modern Languages, which I co-chair, that the cost of a visa can be prohibitive and the process difficult to navigate. Would the Minister agree to look again at an overhaul of the visa system or a visa waiver, which would provide urgent relief in unblocking the supply chain of language teachers?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

It is certainly the case that there has been a disappointing failure to address the shortage of modern foreign language teachers. That is why, for example, one of the things that the Government will do is extend bursary and scholarship eligibility to all non-UK-national trainees in languages. That means scholarships and bursaries worth a considerable amount of money. I note the noble Baroness’s point about visa costs. I think what is more important is that it is clear to domestic or international potential modern foreign language teachers that this is a country in which their efforts will be reasonably well rewarded and that they will be provided with all the other support necessary to carry out that important role of language teaching.