3rd July 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
New statistics emerged this week which show that the UK’s school teachers are the youngest in Europe. The survey, carried out by the OECD, showed that 60% of British primary school teachers are under 40, and 31% are under 30 year old. Only secondary schools in Brazil and Indonesia have more teachers under 40 years old than the UK. These figures have sparked debate surrounding working conditions for teachers and the potential problems and benefits of having young teachers in the classrooms.
Newly qualified teachers in the UK receive higher starting salaries as incentives to become teachers, but their pay throughout a teaching career falls behind the OECD average, meaning there is less incentive to continue on in the profession. It has raised comment internationally about the value that the UK places on its teachers. However, the OECD noted that there are some advantages to having younger teachers, including the fact that they have more recent, up to date training, and are more able to relate to students who are closer to their age. These advantages are propounded by private tutors, who are often young graduates.
Parents who hire private tutors value the fact that the tutors have recently studied the subjects they are teaching. They are also often able to relate to students due to the fact that they are often close in age to their students, and less intimidating than more experienced teachers. These are excellent qualities for a private tutor to have, enabling them to supplement their students’ secondary school education on a one to one basis. However, in order to gain the most from their education, students would benefit from being taught by both younger and older, more experienced teachers. In order to ensure that we can provide both, we need to raise standards for school teachers to the levels of other European countries.