Dubai: Intense competition for teachers has made it “critical” for schools today to implement a “proactive” recruitment strategy, Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former head of the UK education regulator, told Gulf News on Wednesday.
In an interview, Sir Michael, former Chief Inspector of Schools at Ofsted — who is now senior adviser for education strategy for UAE-based GEMS Education — said teachers nowadays heavily weigh their professional development prospects before joining a school.
Sir Michael said an increasing number of new recruits have no educational or professional background in teaching but are “often people who have worked elsewhere, who want to be a teacher, and are going to be trained in schools”.
He added: “So it’s really important, I think, that head teachers — whether they are in Dubai, in the UAE, or in the UK — have a really proactive strategy to recruit teachers and to train them, professionally develop them, and by doing so, retain them. Retention is as important as recruitment, actually, and if you can retain staff — because they’re happy in a school, because they feel they are being professionally developed and supported — then they tend to stay.”
When asked about the role of remuneration in the teacher recruitment and retention strategy, Sir Michael said: “It could be a financial package, but more probably it is because they [teachers] are comfortable in a school, they are happy in the school, and they feel that they are providing a worthwhile service to the children and the school. That’s really important. And certainly, when I went to the schools yesterday [on Tuesday] and the day before, people feel that they’re working in good schools and are committed to remaining there.”
He was referring to his visits to some “half a dozen” schools in the UAE this week.
Sir Michael described the competition for teachers as “intense”, saying “there’s a global supply-side issue, there’s a global shortage of teachers. So, it’s critical that there’s a real good recruitment strategy. But also when people are employed as a teacher, that they are trained and they are professionally developed to improve”.
In his new role, he will drive GEMS Education’s long-term strategy for its network of globally connected schools, as well as private-public partnerships. In a statement, GEMS said Sir Michael will advise on GEMS low-cost schools in India and South East Asia, “which will further add to the wide variety of educational options that GEMS provides across multiple curriculum and price points”.
Sunny Varkey, founder and chairman of GEMS Education, said: “We’re privileged to welcome someone of Sir Michael Wilshaw’s distinction to advance the GEMS cause of providing high quality education to children across the world.
“Sir Michael has a remarkable track record of transforming low-achieving schools in England into outstanding ones through strong values and innovative methods within classrooms. He has continuously raised the bar on excellence, a value that we at GEMS practise on a daily basis. We believe our schools will greatly benefit from his experience in shaping students into global citizens.”
