UK has the youngest teaching workforce in the developed World

In fairy tales and legends the character of `the wise old man` often features. This venerable sage, with his long white beard and modest attire is seen as a fount of all knowledge, with everyone from humble villagers to Kings and Queens seeking his sage advice. Though some details concerning this character archetype many alter from story to story, one things stands constant - he is always of advanced years.

In many cultures there is a parallel made between age and wisdom: someone who has lived such a long life must surely have accumulated a great amount of knowledge. Does this mean that older teachers make better teachers? Back in the 60`s and 70`s when I was at school, it seemed there wasn`t a teacher under 50, though this certainly doesn`t seem to be the norm nowadays.

A report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has disclosed that the UK has more than double the proportion of teachers who are under the age of 30 compared to the other developed countries. As well as having the most youthful workforce, our teachers have a modest salary, being paid below the international average for all the associated levels.

This trend seems to have begun in 2005, when the average age of teachers started to fall, leaving us with 31% of primary school teachers now aged 30 or under. Salaries for teachers in England are on average 10% lower than in 2005 - and it doesn`t look like the study has taken into the effects of inflation, meaning the real pay for teachers has fallen even further over the last decade and a half. Combine these constricting finances with growing class sizes - the UK being one of the few countries that has classrooms becoming more packed since 2005 - and it becomes easy to understand why there is a recruitment and retention crisis in teaching.

Andreas Schleicher, the director for education and skills at the OECD, gave a speech at the launch of the report, saying `There have been clear cuts and when you make cuts you have to make choices. You cut your teacher salaries, you increase your class sizes.`

`Teachers have moved backwards on pay and on class size so the UK is in the risk quadrant where class sizes have become bigger and teachers are paid less.`

Of course there`s no rule that says younger teachers are any less skilled then their more `mature` colleagues - in fact many students claim to learn more from a teacher who is close to them in age. Mr Schleicher pointed out that the UK having the youngest teaching workforce could be seen in an favorable way:

`You can look at that as a positive sign in the sense of lots of people who want to move, who are motivated and who are freshly educated with the latest technology.`

The fact remains that the reason we have such a large number of young teachers, not just in primary but also in secondary schools, is that there is a huge retention crisis. Recent research carried out by the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) suggests that a quarter of teachers quit within their first year; and that four out of ten plan to leave the industry completely within the next 5 years, according to the National Education Union.

With excessive workloads, often exceeding 70 hours a week, and with one in four teachers `experience(ing) violence from pupils every week` (according to the NASUWT union), it`s really hardly surprising that so many teachers leave the industry to pursue other occupations. It`s this exodus of course that`s bringing down the average age of teachers, with many older teachers leaving the profession only to be replaced by young graduates. Mr Schleicher was well aware that the young average age of teachers `signals that a lot of people leave the profession. That`s the downside of it. That actually there is a lot of churn and turnover in this which I think puts the population at risk.`

The strains aren`t just felt by teachers though, as the report from the OECD reveals the UK has the second highest university fees in the developed world, despite the salary premium for graduates declining over recent years. There may be some good news however, with the Department for Education promising that all teachers and school leaders will enjoy an above inflation pay increase this year of 2.75% - and the government has also announced that teacher starting salaries in England will be raised to £30,000 by 2022.