Education secretary Damian Hinds is set to face tough questioning from MPs on the teacher recruitment and retention crisis next week.
The Commons Education Select Committee has said that its members are also likely ask Mr Hinds about skills and apprenticeships and school accountability, when he appears before them on Wednesday.
The announcement comes as a Tes investigation revealed how the teacher shortage is being exacerbated by international teachers being forced to leave the country.
Teachers are being forced to quit their jobs and leave the country at short notice because they cannot obtain visas.
School leaders have told Tes that visa refusals are having a “critical” impact on their ability to fill vacancies, and teachers have described feeling “devastated” and “heartbroken” by having to abandon their pupils and put relationships in the UK on hold.
Now Tes is launching a new campaign, Let Them Teach, to pull down the official barriers preventing international teachers from working in British schools.
Questions on accountability
Mr Hinds will face questions on accountability and skills, having made major announcements in both areas since taking office.
He signalled a significant change to the school accountability system earlier this year by scaling back forced academisation and the role of regional schools commissioners.
He has said that from now on only an Ofsted “inadequate” judgement will be the trigger for forced academy conversion, and RSC visits to schools “which feel like inspections” will stop.
Mr Hinds has also said that floor targets and the coasting school category will be replaced by one accountability measure.
Last month the education secretary caused controversy by rejecting a one-year delay to the implementation of the new T-level qualifications, it has emerged.
In a letter to the Department for Education’s permanent secretary, Mr Hinds said he was “convinced of the case to press ahead” with the original plans, which means the first T-level subjects will start being taught in September 2020.
This followed a letter to the education secretary from permanent secretary Jonathan Slater, in which he said the delivery of the T-level programme to the timetable set out was “ambitious”.
At Mr Hinds’ first appearance before the committee in March, the education secretary was questioned on a range of topics including the off-rolling of pupils from schools. He told MPs that he would like fewer children to be excluded.
