Teacher supply 'crisis'

A DECLINE in education standards could occur as schools struggle to cover classes with specialist teachers amid recruitment and retention challenges, MPs have been told.

Schools are increasingly having to rely on cover staff and non-subject specialists to teach pupils due to teacher vacancies, education leaders have warned.

Union bosses told the Commons Education Select Committee that there is a "crisis" in teacher supply, with one leader warning there is not a school in the country which is not being affected by shortages.

Dame Alison Peacock, chief executive of the Chartered College of Teaching, told MPs on Tuesday: "We're getting to the point where if you can't even find a supply teacher, if there isn't even someone that you can phone up that can come in, it gets to desperate stakes.