By Gavin Mackintosh-
One in six teachers are now working second jobs due to the Cost Of Living Crisis.
This is despite the demanding volume of work load a teaching job entails.
Figures published by Teacher Tapp show a “substantial jump” of 42 per cent in the proportion of educators reporting they were doing other work outside their day job.
The organization polls hundreds of teachers and leaders a month, asks its subscribers each January whether they had earned cash “outside education in the preceding 12 months”.
The percentage of people between 2019 and 2022 that responded yes rose from 12 per cent to 17 per cent, according to their poll.
The finding is concerning because of its seeming implication that teachers in many schools do not give its best attention to its pupils, if they are working second jobs.
After all, teachers need to make time in preparation for the next day, everyday. According to the polling above, nearly 20% of teachers are forced to compromise the best standards of contribution to the class.
However, the percentage represents a small proportion of the total number of teachers in the UK.
Many teachers in UK schools are committed to providing quality teaching to their students. Good teachers engage their pupils during classes, and has the necessary touch to inspire their learning.
The statistics comes as teachers in many parts of the UK continue to complain about inadequate pay rates. NASUWT became the second teaching union to announce plans for a consultative ballot of members over wages and workload on Monday – a month on from the NEU’s pledge to quiz members about strike action.
Seventeen per cent of classroom teachers as well as 18 per cent of middle had second jobs, while just 8 per cent headteachers did so, Teacher Tapp found.
The polling company believes heads are “either too well paid, or too busy, for side hustles”.
Earlier this week, NASUWT confirmed it will hold a consultative ballot over the “coming weeks” to “take forward its campaigning, up to and including industrial action, to secure a better deal for teachers on pay, workload, working hours and wellbeing”.
On the same day, it also published the results of a survey of 7,000 of its members in England’s state schools.
Seventy-two per cent said workload had increased since the start of the academic year. The same proportion stated that no measures had been put in place by their school to “remedy concerns raised”.
Teachers play a very significant role in the potential future of their pupils, and can be very influential in the appetite for learning they establish in students.