Commenting on the Government’s failure to yet again meet initial teacher training recruitment targets in England for 2023/24, Daniel Kebede, General Secrtetary of the National Education Union,said;
“Another year of this Government missing its own initial teacher training recruitment targets. Last year’s figures seemed as bad as it could get but this year it has recruited just 50% of the number of secondary trainees it says it needs. Among secondary subjects, only history and PE currently have enough trainee teachers, and for many subjects the picture is catastrophic: at a time when the Prime Minister is pushing increased maths provision, we are recruiting less than two-thirds the amount of maths teachers required to meet even current demand.
‘The Government has still not recruited the full number of primary teachers needed, either. The effects of this failure are felt in schools up and down the country, with school leaders unable to recruit teachers in many areas, existing staff left overworked, and pupils being taught by non-specialists in too many cases. But recruitment is only half the sorry story. We still lose over 30% of trained teachers withing the first five years of their career, and record numbers of teachers are quitting before retirement age.
‘Everyone who knows a teacher, knows how hard they work, how intense the job is, and that few would recommend it as a career to others. Graduates have lots of options and teaching is not looking like one for them currently. Children and young people deserve better; teachers love to teach but the circumstances they work in are unsustainable.
‘These figures show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the teacher recruitment and retention crisis, already serious, is getting even worse. The recruitment and retention crisis will not be solved without the fully funded, above inflation pay rise, and urgent action to tackle sky-high workload, for which the NEU is campaigning.”