Responding to a new report by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) into difficulties in teacher recruitment and retention in some parts of Wales, Laura Doel, national secretary at NAHT Cymru, said:

“We hear from school leaders across Wales who are struggling to recruit and keep hold of staff. It is clear more needs to be done to address this.

“The answer is not to bring in incentives which at best will shift the problem and entice those who want to be teachers to pick a specific subject or teach in a specific location - it is to address the elephant in the room, which is to create the conditions of service that sees teaching thrive.

“The first step should be to restore pay across the board to 2010 levels with further above-inflation pay rises - not differentiate by subject or location.

"Creating a two-tier workforce is divisive and fails to recognise that pay has been cut substantially in real terms, falling behind other comparable graduate professions.

"Secondly we need to see more action on issues like workload and funding, which keep school leaders and their staff awake at night, and less on vanity projects like reforming the school year. As a minimum, that means ensuring that the extra funding given to the Welsh Government following the recent UK government Budget is ring-fenced for education."