The number of teachers in schools in England is in crisis, with problems recruiting and retaining high quality teachers.
This morning’s Teacher Labour Market in England report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) outlines the scale of the challenge – recruitment targets are likely to continue to be missed, and there are increasing difficulties in retaining teachers due to workload and pay pressures.
This follows last week’s Department for Education announcement of its 2024–25 targets for postgraduate initial teacher education recruitment – DfE anticipates that it will need 33,355 trainee teachers. This is six per cent fewer teachers than the 2023–24 target, despite missing that target by almost 50 per cent for secondary school teacher applicants. Notwithstanding this reduction, NFER is forecasting under-recruitment in 10 out of 17 secondary subjects for the coming year.
This reduced target is justified on the grounds that more teachers are expected to return to the profession and that while secondary pupil numbers are increasing, they are doing so at a slower rate. The increased international applications this year, on the back of new government initiatives, might also be masking the scale of the problem as many of these applications are not high quality.
