Schools face huge teacher shortages and in 2021 reported the highest number of vacancies since 2010. Despite a 5% increase in teachers in that period, recruitment has not kept pace with increasing pupil numbers. Recent figures show that the Government has been unable to meet its recruitment targets for trainee secondary teachers having reached only 59% of the target for trainees recruited for Initial Teacher Training in the year 2022/23, down from 79% in 2021/22.
MPs will investigate the current situation of teacher retention and recruitment, the main factors leading to difficulties in the process and the impact it has on students. This includes assessing how well the current teacher training framework prepares new teachers, and how the English system compares internationally.
A 2022 report by the National Foundation for Educational Research shows that the teacher supply challenge is marked particularly by a lack of physics, chemistry and maths teachers. For physics, only 17% of the target to recruit 2,610 trainees was achieved, with only 444 new entrants. The Committee was recently told that at this current level of supply, it would be impossible to carry out the Prime Minister’s proposal of requiring pupils to study maths until 18.
