Those of us with expendable and rare specialisms, like citizenship, are on the edges of the discourse about recruitment and retention. No one seems to know our plight or to be on our side. We flit from job to job, settling for work with little security (a term here and a maternity contract there) or positions that are too far away or too expensive to get to, just so that we can stay in the profession that we love.

The focus of the debate about the recruitment crisis is always on those subjects with shortages. We have a national curriculum in name only: with academies not having to follow it and schools under pressure to push for results in core subjects, like English and maths, those subjects that many in education see as “wishy-washy” are being sidelined.

This means that many excellent teachers are being driven from the system or left to float around, unappreciated and without basic job security. A more flexible working culture for some is leading to greater uncertainty for people like me.

It would be easy to ask those affected to retrain, or to try to teach another subject. Many people have said just that to me, and I have thought about listening to them. But it takes a lot to convince a school that you can in fact teach another subject, even though you might have been in the classroom for several years.

Recruitment is so uncertain

At the same time, recruitment has become a massively kaleidoscopic affair. I see advert after advert for random combinations of subjects: a post that is 0.6 FTE in geography and 0.4 FTE in PE; or a maths teacher position spread across two schools in an academy chain (sometimes miles apart). Meanwhile, some schools are jumping on board with trendy subjects such as classical civilisations or sociology (now a GCSE subject) at the expense of what used to be mandatory subjects like citizenship.  

This chaos has to end. We once had a system where every school knew what it had to teach and jobs were secure. Now, we have a model where the curricula from school to school is so vastly different that you can literally cross a road with a school on either side and the students will not even have heard of some of the subjects taught in the school opposite. Schools are also choosing subjects that make them look more academic and traditional in the eyes of Ofsted. A child can now learn sociology from Year 9 but make it all the way to 18 years old without having a clue about elections or voting. And all the while, parents are entering a postcode lottery about what their children are taught.

We need a national education strategy that provides teachers and students with a consistent curriculum that is not constantly chopping and changing. All should receive a well-rounded education that is free from the biased whims of political influence and regional variations. That way, teachers from all areas will have a better chance of securing a position in the areas they wish to live and work, regardless of the subjects they teach.

Shaun Townsend is a Citizenship Specialist in East Anglia.