Angela Rayner has said the crisis in teacher retention is the symptom of a “broken system” where teachers are driven out of the profession by unmanageable workloads.
The Labour shadow education secretary also attacked the government’s policy to expand grammar schools as a “vanity project” unsupported by evidence.
Speaking at the Association of School and College Leaders’ annual conference in Birmingham, Ms Rayner said: “Why are teachers leaving the profession? We know this, we know what the issues are.
“Tragically just a couple of months ago we had coroner’s report near my constituency into a young teacher who killed herself, and in the coroner’s report it was workload - it was her workload.”
This was “disgraceful” and “absolutely disgusting,” she said.
“The fact that we’ve got a crisis, that we have record numbers of teachers leaving the profession tells you that the system is broken and needs fixing.”
She said the government needed to “move away from” and “obsession with paper work” and “teaching to a test”.
TES understands that Ms Rayner was referring to the inquest into the death of Laurian Bold, 31.
At the conclusion of an inquest into her death in November, the coroner criticised her school, Hollingworth Academy, Rochdale, for asking Ms Bold to complete a spreadsheet of pupil’s marks while off sick and contacting her via phone calls instead of emails.
“That in my view potentially aided the burden of her anxieties and was unacceptable,” the coroner had said.
In her speech, Ms Rayner branded the government’s plan to expand grammar school selection a “vanity project”.
She said she was “not sure” Theresa May believed in the idea, but said the prime minister was pursuing the policy to give “red meat” for Conservative backbenchers to “feast on”, “gorging themselves on a selection box”.
Ms Rayner also criticised the government’s expansion of free transport to selective schools as “the most expensive taxi-ride in history”.
She said that if Labour was in power it would take money currently earmarked for the expansion of free schools and grammars and use it to alleviate the funding pressure on the rest of the school system.
Asked about her funding priorities, she said: “If I had an extra pound to spend on education, one of the first places I would put it is in early years.”
The Education Support Partnership operates a free and confidential 24-hour helpline for education staff on 08000 562 561.
Samaritans (116 123) operates a 24-hour service available every day of the year. If you prefer to write down how you’re feeling, or if you’re worried about being overheard on the phone, you can email Samaritans at jo@samaritans.org.
