Why are experienced teachers leaving teaching?

@GuardianTeach asks this question on Twitter, but 140 characters just aren’t enough to list the reasons.

Teaching has become more stressful quite rapidly.  Behaviour is poor and respect is virtually nil.  Behaviour problems from students have been a problem since education began, but the issue now is that teachers are expected to put up with it – even to take the blame for it.  Many find that disruptive students are supported – even encouraged – by their parents and by school management.  If a student disrupts a lesson, the teacher is accountable; not the student.  And students know this, especially when Ofsted visits.  If at school I’d had the opportunity to vent my spleen at the teachers I disliked, with the backing of my parents and the powers that be, I would have grabbed it with both hands.  Any child would!

This disregard for a whole profession is backed by government rhetoric, and the derision to which the profession as a whole is subjected is fuelled by media reports about high salaries, short working days, too many holidays and poor performance.

Older teachers have more years of experience and, in general, know what works and what doesn’t.  In this age of constantly changing government targets and Ofsted’s moving goalposts, older teachers with valid opinions that show new initiatives up for the tosh they are will be seen as disruptive.  Older and experienced teachers won’t be fooled by government statistics and rhetoric and can spot a barmy idea from a hundred paces.   They are the ones who know how this will affect the life chances of the young people they teach, but no one wants to listen to what they have to offer because it doesn’t fit in with the government’s latest grand plan.

Many of these teachers, particularly the ones who voice their concerns, find themselves on the end of a capability charge.  Reasons will be found to get rid of them and younger, less-experienced staff, who are willing to bend to government dogma because they know no different and have their eye on promotion, will see older staff as sceptical and unwilling to change with the times.  A burden dragging down their school.

Furthermore, older and experienced teachers have earned some of the perks that come with their status.  They are more expensive because, until recently, experience in teaching (as with all jobs) has been acknowledged as important and used to train new teachers.  They have been paying into their pensions for much longer and are approaching the age where they will be able to retire in relative comfort, as is their right.  Unlike their younger colleagues, they will have paid less into the pot for a shorter time by the time they leave (at a younger age than those with another few decades to go).

These older teachers are also likely to be higher up the pay scale and, particularly those who have chosen to remain in the classroom rather than climbing the greasy pole to management, may be seen as poor value for money.  And what better way to get rid of an unwanted expense than to subject it to continual negative observations, undermining years of excellent service, as well as self-esteem? An NQT might not be able to teach as effectively, but they earn a fraction of what the experienced teacher earns so are better to hire (and retain) in these cash-strapped times.  NQTs are more likely to bend to pressure, even when it has no benefit for their students.

The above would also explain why so many experienced teachers are either on long-term sick leave with stress and anxiety or have left the profession completely, feeling that their health is deteriorating at too fast a rate to justify hanging on in there.  They know they can no longer make a positive difference to young lives – the reason they went into teaching – because schools are becoming factories for churning out young people with pieces of paper that don’t reflect their actual abilities.  Experienced teachers know that this generation of young people is being cheated of their right to a good education.

As for attracting top graduates to the profession, this is laughable.  Teaching already has many top graduates (I, and many of those with whom I trained, have first and high second class degrees from institutions such as Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, Manchester… how high in quality do we need to go?)  What’s being done to retain the excellent teachers already propping up the system?  But then again, we know too much about the reality.  Not many of us remain.

Teaching is no longer about educating: it’s about kowtowing to the desires of politicians who have no idea how to teach, and who have no respect for those who do.  Mr Gove doesn’t want teachers: he wants drones who will agree to use their profession as a tool to make him look good when he goes for the top job.

Older teachers have for too long been overworked and under appreciated – nay, despised – by those for whom they work.  No one wants to hear the truth about what goes on in the classroom; the reality of what teachers are expected to get done when not standing in front of their classes and how much of this is detrimental to good quality education.  Teachers’ families have for too long put up with the stress of being ignored and having to pick up the pieces when it all gets too much.

‘Teaching’ is now a young person’s game (as long as they have no ideals about actually good teaching and just want promotion and status).  Until the system implodes completely and is shown up for what it is, older teachers with a modicum of self-respect will continue to turn away in droves.