School closures have turned the UK into a nation of temporary teachers since the coronavirus lockdown – and that may have inspired some people to seek new careers in the classroom, according to a new survey.
Now Teach, the charity co-founded by the former journalist Lucy Kellaway, encourages older workers to change careers, and has found that the lockdown has increased the status of school teachers among the population at large, as parents have come to appreciate the joys of designing scientific experiments that impart knowledge rather than just make a mess in the kitchen.
The survey of 2,000 UK adults found that 3% said they had “been thinking about becoming a teacher and I wasn’t before the coronavirus lockdown”, while a further 5% agreed that they had been “already thinking about becoming a teacher before the coronavirus lockdown but I’m thinking about it more seriously now”.
“The leap in interest in teaching is exactly what I’d hoped would happen during this wretched time,” said Kellaway, who left her post as a columnist at the Financial Times in 2016 and is now an economics teacher at Mossbourne Victoria Park academy in east London.
While 3% might not sound significant, Kellaway points out that across the UK population as a whole that would amount to more than enough recruits to solve any teaching shortages in Britain’s schools for a generation.
Now Teach said it has seen a 70% rise in applications for its training programme between March and May this year, at the height of the lockdown.
One of those, Aisha Singleton, who worked in publishing in Norwich, said: “My previous industry had so many opportunities and I have many great memories of it, but the bottom line is, I don’t feel I’ve really helped anyone.
“When coronavirus broke out, I thought, ‘I want to inspire young people, I want to be giving back.’ This pandemic has given me the final push in that direction.
“When children go back to school in September, they’re going to need support, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
The survey found that despite some high-profile complaints, 64% of parents have enjoyed the experience of home schooling and only 9% reported a negative experience – which Kellaway thought might help explain the new attraction of a career in teaching.
The desire to change careers was strongest among workers who are still in full-time employment, according to the survey, rather than those who had been furloughed or were unemployed during the lockdown.
“I co-founded Now Teach four years ago because I hoped there were other professionals out there who, like me, wanted to do something more useful with their lives. The pandemic has made this point more powerfully than I ever could. It has shone a light on the emptiness of some jobs and made people want to do something that really matters,” Kellaway said.
The survey also found that respondents with school-age children – who have spent the past two months home schooling – “overwhelmingly reported increased gratitude to teachers and respect for what they do”, compared with just 4.5% who said their respect had lessened.
This came despite high-profile attacks on teaching unions by some in the media and government, over their concerns about the safe return of pupils into schools.
© The Guardian
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