Teacher shortage: Four-day week attracts PhD graduates into profession
The Independent | Richard Garner | Education Editor | 20 February 2016
On the fifth day, teachers in the Researchers in Schools programme work with targeted pupils or improve their skills
A government-backed scheme which guarantees that recruits will only spend four days a week in the classroom is helping to solve the teacher shortage in maths and science.
The Researchers in Schools programme works along the lines of the TeachFirst scheme, which lured some of the brightest graduates in the country into teaching. Its unique angle is that the Researchers project only recruits graduates with a PhD.
On their fifth day, the teachers can do their own research, go to conferences to improve their teaching skills, or work with small groups of students – possibly from disadvantaged communities.
The project has three key aims for teachers on their fifth day: increasing their subject expertise, championing the idea of students aiming for university, and carrying out research in their field.
Simon Coyle, co-founder of the Brilliant Club, which devised the scheme, believes a similar approach adopted elsewhere in the system could make teaching more attractive, thus helping to tackle the workload problem that has bedevilled the profession.
