Last month, NFER published its annual report on the state of teacher recruitment and retention in England, highlighting how the teacher supply challenge has intensified significantly since the pandemic. In the report we showed that, following historically low ITT recruitment in 2022/23, recruitment was showing no signs of improvement this year.
The Department for Education (DfE) published ITT application figures for April earlier this week, and yesterday it released its recruitment targets for 2023/24. The latter represents the number of teachers it estimates need to enter teacher training in each subject this year to maintain existing staffing levels in schools. The most recent data on recruitment suggests that recruitment of primary teachers this year is likely to come close to its target. However, overall secondary recruitment is on track to meet less than half of its 2023/24 target, with all subjects but three likely to miss the mark.
Continued under-recruitment of teachers this year is likely to further ratchet up the pressure on teacher supply in England, particularly for secondary schools. On top of the existing staffing and budget pressures that many schools are currently facing, it may become increasingly difficult to fill teaching vacancies with quality teachers. This is likely to have detrimental impacts on pupil attainment, particularly for schools in deprived areas (Worth and Faulkner-Ellis, 2022).
This year’s forecasted under-recruitment is driven both by sluggish recruitment and significant changes in recruitment targets. Figures for April show that recruitment for some secondary subjects (such as physics, biology, computing, and modern foreign languages) is slightly higher this year than at the same point last year – likely due in part to increases in the generosity of training bursaries for these subjects. However, this has been offset by lower numbers of placed applicants in other subjects, meaning overall secondary ITT recruitment this year is no better than last year.
