Competition for private and state school teachers

The Centre for the Economics of Education have released this report into the effect that the independent school sector has on the teacher labour market.

Key findings:
- Independent schools employ a disproportionate number of teachers compared to the number of pupils they educate and this has increased in the last 20 years.
- Teachers in independent schools are more likely to be specialists in shortage subjects and more likely to have post graduate qualifications than in the state sector.
- There is a steady flow and slightly increasing flow of teachers from the state sector going into the independent sector.
- There is a mixed picture with reference to the benefits of working in the state sector: the independent sector teachers work with fewer pupils and have longer holidays but the overall satisfaction, which was higher for the indpendent sector in the mid-90's has since seen convergence. Among women pay is lower in the private sector and there is no difference between pay for men. However, there is a pay premium for independent school teachers of subject shortages.