NASUWT comments on the TALIS 2018 report

Commenting on the TALIS 2018 Report: ‘Mending the Education Divide: Getting Strong Teachers to the Schools that Need them Most’, Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of the NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union, said:

“The important insights and evidence set out in the report highlight the critical role that TALIS plays in collating and analysing international evidence in a wide range of areas, especially the education workforce.

“Today’s report makes plain the deeply regrettable nature of the Government’s decision to withdraw from future versions of TALIS – a decision that can and should be reversed.

“The Education Secretary prides himself on taking an evidence-led approach. He should now demonstrate that he is willing to walk the walk and not merely talk the talk on the importance of evidence-based policy making.

“Ministers should demonstrate the courage of their convictions and be willing to learn from the international evidence, not to run away from it because it does not always show Government policy in a good light.

“Today’s report serves to reinforce many important aspects of those policies best suited to securing and maintaining educational excellence and equity and the need for Government to tackle the causes and effects of deepening poverty and inequality which are holding back children’s learning.

“Recruiting and retaining a highly skilled and well-motivated teaching workforce is key to ensuring that all children and young people, particularly those growing up in challenging and disadvantaged circumstances, get the educational opportunities to which they are entitled.

“That will require action to tackle the causes of teachers’ wastage and burnout including ending excessive workload and boosting teachers’ pay.

​“The report highlights the extent and consequences of digital exclusion among children and young people living in disadvantaged households.

“The implications of this exclusion have been thrown into sharp relief during the pandemic and we need to see much more action across all areas of government to tackle social exclusion.

“The report is a reminder to Government to acknowledge the significant scale and depth of poverty and that schools alone cannot fix society’s problems.”