Recruiting and retaining teachers in the state sector remains a key challenge for England’s schools. Last year only 59 per cent of the required number of secondary trainees were recruited to initial teacher training (ITT). NFER’s forecast for this year, based on applications received, is for recruitment of just 52 per cent of the target.
Policymakers are therefore searching for effective solutions to boost recruitment and retain teachers, particularly in acutely affected subjects such as physics and computing. Given the challenging state of the public finances, they are also looking for low-cost solutions which are known to be effective.
There is also policy pressure to review existing spending and reallocate resources away from policies that are costly and not delivering. The Government plans to spend £196 million on bursaries and other financial inducements to enter teacher training in 2024. The Labour party has committed to reviewing current spending on bursaries to ensure it “is being done in line with evidence of best practice”. So, what is the evidence?
