35% of pupils in England are from an ethnic minority, but these underrepresented groups make up only 15% of teachers, government data has revealed. Now Teach, a charity helping older career changers become secondary school teachers shared a case study with Asian Voice which gives an insight into bridging the ethnic minority gap between teachers and pupils.
The approach of recruiting older people into the classroom means 32% of Now Teachers are from an ethnic minority. Almost all of the teachers are over 45 and have decades of experience working in other fields. Traditional teacher recruitment, focussing on young graduates, is baking in this ethnicity gap between pupils and teachers. Changing tactics to attract older trainees could double representation.
This inequality may also be having a wider impact. The UK has one of the youngest teaching workforces in the OECD and data shows the most economically deprived schools have the youngest teachers, meaning those children are taught by people with the least life and career experience.
Deepak Swaroop, 57, London - Knew within months of retirement he had made a mistake. After 10 years as a partner at EY, leading their global automation and artificial intelligence effort, he was left unsatisfied with the pace of retirement. Fuelled by the need for a renewed purpose in life, he unretired to become a Maths teacher in a state school in London during the height of the pandemic. He believes employers need to do more to invest in retraining and reskilling older workers in their current roles and society must leverage them more formally their skills while giving them a purpose. He has embarked on a new path to challenge himself with a complete career change at 55 and hasn’t looked back.
Sasha Chaudhri, 57, London - Four decades after leaving school at 16, with no qualifications, this top city lawyer passed her English GCSEs just weeks before starting training to become a teacher. Despite failing her then OLevels in 1981, she later gained a law degree and Masters before working for 25 years at top city firms such as Visa, Santander, EY and the Financial Ombudsman. Sasha, from Merton, South London, began her teacher training for English at Kingston University this September.
Sasha told Asian Voice, “After a challenging time, I left school at 16 after failing all my exams. Despite this, my passion for English spurred me on to successfully achieve a first in Law at University at the age of 32, followed by a very rewarding career in the corporate world. Despite over 20 years of working for big names such as Grant Thornton and Royal London, I started feeling unfulfilled. Having attained a high level in my career, I did some soul-searching and reached the decision to follow a new career path in teaching English. I want to inspire students and help them to obtain a good foundation in the English language to enable them to pursue their dreams.
“To prepare me for this career in teaching, I decided to retake my GCSEs in English and Maths, which has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Retaking them provided me with the invaluable experience of fostering an up-to-date understanding of the syllabus and the opportunity to observe some inspiring teaching methods as a student. On a personal level, I have learned patience and will be immensely proud to be part of a profession that develops our children of today for the future requirements of tomorrow and beyond. I would say to students struggling to make the grade they wanted, that some of the most brilliant minds have failed at many things, and the fact that they keep preserving eventually makes them stronger. It is that journey that provides you with the opportunity to learn to conquer life’s obstacles”.
