Teacher recruitment crisis looms in England as only half of needed trainees enlisted

As reported by The Guardian, England’s secondary schools grapple with a potential teaching shortage, with only half of the necessary trainee teachers on board as the new academic year begins

The figures, obtained by the National Education Union (NEU) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), show ministers are on course to miss their recruitment targets by 48%.

Numbers in all subjects except for history, PE and classics are below the government recruitment target, the National Foundation for Educational Research has said. “Without an urgent policy response to make teaching more attractive, schools will face increasingly intense shortages over the next few years, which are likely to impact negatively on the quality of pupils’ education,” said Jack Worth, the NFER’s school workforce lead.

Government figures for last month – the final month before teacher training courses get under way – show there were just 13,788 recruits, well short of the target of 26,360.

The NAHT and the NEU will host a joint debate on the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention at the TUC’s annual conference in Liverpool on Tuesday.

Paul Whiteman, the NAHT general secretary, said the shortages meant more children were being taught either by teachers with no qualification in the subject, by teaching assistants or by supply staff.

“The government must rip up its failed recruitment and retention strategy and replace it with a new vision which restores education as a career graduates aspire to,” he said. “That means at the very least immediate action to tackle crushing workload and fundamentally reform Ofsted, as well as a plan to reverse more than a decade of real-terms pay cuts.”

Daniel Kebede, the NEU general secretary, said: “This is not a sustainable situation, and the reasons behind it are all too clear. Chronic underfunding, some of the longest working hours in Europe and real-terms cuts to pay are driving many out of the profession. Not enough are coming into teaching because less stressful and better-paid jobs are available elsewhere.”

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “Teachers will get a 6.5% pay award beginning in September and starting salaries are now at least £30,000, which recognises the hard work of teachers and leaders.”

The DfE said there were a record number of teachers in schools, up by 27,000 since 2010. The unions point out, however, that the number of pupils in state-funded schools in England has risen at almost double the rate of the teaching workforce.