OECD TALIS report – ‘Mending the Education Divide’

This morning at an event in London, EPI has launched the latest OECD Teaching and Learning Survey (TALIS) report, ‘Mending the Education Divide – Getting Strong Teachers to the Schools That Need Them Most’. You can read the OECD report here.

James Zuccollo, Director for School Workforce at the Education Policy Institute (EPI): 

“The quality of teaching is the most important element of children’s schooling, and it is essential to ensure that all children have access to great teachers. 

“Today’s TALIS report shows that England is below the OECD average when it comes to the distribution of more experienced teachers, with those who are in the profession longer more likely to be teaching in more affluent schools.

“Given that countries with a more even distribution of quality teachers tend to perform better in international PISA tests, it is imperative that the government continues to focus on policies that incentivise effective teachers into areas with low pupil outcomes. 

“Ensuring that challenging schools have the tools to attract and retain great teachers and the resources to support them, must remain a top priority.”

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.”

You can watch the Livestream here: https://www.oecd.org/education/talis/