YP Comment: Why teachers must be valued

Skills – academic, vocational, technical and digital – have never been more important and it therefore follows that teaching is a profession that needs to be cherished.

However this economic and social necessity is being compromised by a high turnover of teaching staff which is even more marked in those core subjects, like the sciences, maths and languages, which are so integral to a rounded education. One factor, according to the National Foundation for Educational Research, is because these teachers can secure better job prospects in other industries.

Pupils need continuity and consistency. They invariably excel when there’s a familiar face at the front of the classroom and less so when there’s a revolving door because teachers have either left, or are absent with ill-health. The recent rise in class sizes must also not go unchecked.

Young people only have one education. They can’t afford to be let down in such numbers, so the question that each party leader is duty-bound to answer is this: what are you going to do to improve the recruitment, and retention, of teachers so all pupils are taught by the best?