The Liberal Democrats say investment in the sector will give children the chance to flourish. While Labour say giving staff a better work life balance and valuing the workforce is the best way to achieve this.
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00:00 >>Mr Speaker An inspirational teacher, as my right hon.
00:03 Friend knows, is often the key to opening opportunities to young people for their future.
00:08 What more can the Government do to help retain more of these good aspirational teachers?
00:13 >>The Prime Minister The early careers framework has just been
00:18 introduced last year and is really focused on trying to make sure that we support teachers,
00:23 particularly in the first five years, to make sure that we retain more teachers. The figures
00:27 show that the risk of retention is actually in the first, you know, nought to five years.
00:32 So we put a lot of work and effort into making sure that we support teachers more during
00:36 that period.
00:37 >>Education Secretary Gillian Keegan answered questions in the House of Commons last year
00:41 ahead of strike action taken by teachers across England and Wales in disputes over pay and
00:46 working conditions. Now, latest figures reveal a shortage of teaching staff, indicating issues
00:52 with training and retention, while some schools trial measures like earlier finishes on Fridays
00:57 or whole days off for mental well-being. Some experts believe a shake-up of the whole term
01:01 time and holiday system could benefit both pupils and teachers alike.
01:05 >>The Prime Minister I mean, if you think about the summer holiday
01:07 in England, it's six weeks. In Ireland, it's 10 weeks. This is a long, long time. And in
01:12 terms of children retaining information taught in the school year, you know, that period
01:19 is a decline. You know, children can't remember things from going back to school. So where
01:22 you finish in July and coming back to school in September, there is a drop in that. So
01:28 it is a massive long time. And, you know, finances set aside, different families and
01:33 different parents will choose different ways to fill that time. And that's part of the
01:39 issue as well, if you can do that with a range of things and still have children allowing
01:43 some downtime for themselves as well. We very much live in a time where it's very pressurised.
01:49 You know, we've got to do this, then we go to this, and then we go to do this. You know,
01:52 children need some downtime. It's like a computer, it needs some sort of screen time to sort
01:56 of recharge those batteries, I think, as well.