Schools hit by teacher recruitment crisis

Schools hit by teacher jobs crisis

Rebecca Smithers, education correspondent

Wednesday August 30, 2000

The Guardian

Teaching unions yesterday warned of the worst recruitment crisis ever to grip British classrooms, with thousands of pupils due to return to understaffed schools next week no permanent teacher.

In London, where the problem is particularly acute, the government yesterday acknowledged the worsening situation by announcing measures to attract more trainees to inner city schools, including a doubling of the number of places for prospective teachers to train “on the job” and financial help with housing.

The Department for Education and Employment said new figures to be published next month will reveal 1,020 teacher vacancies in London in January this year – the highest on record. The vacancy rate for London is 1.9% compared with 0.6% for the rest of England.

Teachers’ leaders warned of the educational damage to children of a constant stream of supply teachers – often from abroad – as a growing number of London boroughs are forced to recruit staff from around the world. Tomorrow more than 20 teachers from Australia will be given a mayoral welcome in Croydon, south London, before starting work in 21 of the borough’s primary and secondary schools next week. Other London boroughs such as Greenwich and Hackney are seeking recruits from New Zealand, Canada and Dubai, in order to attract more ethnic minority staff.

John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association , said: “The recruitment crisis is the worst we have seen. We are no longer talking about just London, but also Birmingham, Nottingham, Hull and Manchester.

“Hundreds of head teachers are facing the new team with large levels of vacancies, particularly at secondary school in the shortage subjects of maths and modern languages. Questions must be asked about what this does for continuity of education for youngsters, particularly those about to take important exams.”

Yesterday, announcing an extra J4m grant to double the number of places for teachers to train on the job in London without going back to college, the education and employment secretary David Blunkett said: “We are determined to help schools in the capital fill their vacancies. The package I’m announcing today will make teaching in London a more financially viable proposition and make more newly-qualified teachers available to teach in the capital”. A returners scheme will also aim to persuade qualified teachers to return to the profession, perhaps after having a family, while teaching staff are to be included in the new J250m Starter Homes Initiative providing housing help for key public service workers.

Ralph Tabberer, chief executive of the teacher training agency, said: “We’re clear that there is a problem in London, but we have a buoyant economy which makes graduate recruitment tough. The new J6,000 training ‘salaries’ for students starting postgraduate courses in September have led to a huge increase in applications for these courses.”

But David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, commented: “It is an absolute scandal that in the year 2000, an advanced industrial country like England should have to go to the old colonies to recruit teachers that we simply can’t find from within our own resources because we don’t give the profession the recognition it deserves.

“The national picture is worse, London is dire and the south-east is extremely difficult. The market for good graduates is so competitive that unless the government is far more radical with its ideas, it is always going to be outmaneuvered by other professions which are recruiting the graduates we need in teaching”.

Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers, added: “The government is simply propping up a shaky building with these measures.”

Camelot wins legal review

Lottery operator will have its day in court, but is denied

injunction halting Branson talks

John Cassy

Wednesday August 30, 2000

The Guardian

Camelot yesterday won the first round of its legal battle to hold on to the National Lottery against regulators who have ruled it out of the running for the next licence to operate the game.

A high court judge granted Camelot permission to seek a judicial review of the lottery commission’s decision to negotiate solely with Sir Richard Branson’s People’s Lottery and allow him time to improve his pitch even though both bidders had failed to meet regulators’ requirements.

However, Camelot was denied an injunction to halt its rival’s talks until after the review. The judge also warned that even if the courts found that the decision to exclude Camelot from talks was unfair, the commission had already decided that Sir Richard’s bid was “more favourable” and Camelot should not expect “significant relief”.

A hearing for the judicial review has been scheduled for September 15.

Both sides claimed victory from the court proceedings.

“We’re absolutely thrilled,” said Camelot’s chief executive designate, Dianne Thompson. “The decision to seek judicial review was taken with the full support of shareholders and Camelot’s 800 staff who strongly believe the national lottery commission’s decision to be unfair.”

Camelot underlined its determination to hold on to its contract by offering to buy the UK arm of US lottery operator GTech and install its own management. Concerns about the propriety of GTech’s software was one of the key concerns cited by regulators in explaining their decision to reject Camelot’s application to run the lottery for seven years from October 2001.

Both the People’s Lottery and the lottery commission said they expected Camelot’s court bid to fail.

“We remain confident we followed the correct procedures and came to the correct decision,” a commission spokesman said.

A People’s Lottery spokesman said they were delighted the court had not upheld Camelot’s application for an injunction. “We can now concentrate on working with the commission to resolve the outstanding issues over the next month.”

Judge Justice Elias said there were clearly arguable points which Camelot was entitled to bring to the court at a full hearing. However, regulators had found the rival bid “more favorable than that from Camelot in the sense that it would provide more money for public activities and so forth”.

“It seems to me that goes to the question of whether judicial review is really appropriate at all in this case and whether Camelot can expect any substantial relief even if they were to win at the substantive hearing,” he said.

Ms Thompson said Camelot had agreed with G-Tech to purchase its lottery software and take over its UK operation and staff, giving Camelot independence from the US firm.

GTech, whose shares have slumped by 16% this month, said yesterday that it was taking several steps to revitalize the company. The Rhode Island based company will fire around 175 staff, about 4% of its workforce, and spend around $45m (J30.6m) revamping its operations, said the chairman, Bruce Turner, who was brought in recently following the resignations of GTech’s chairman and chief executive, William O’Connor, and chief operating officer, Steven Nowick.

They quit shortly after it emerged that GTech had kept secret from Camelot a software glitch that resulted in thousands of winners in Britain being over or underpaid.