The government missed its target for recruitment of new secondary school teachers by 41 per cent this year, and also recruited fewer primary teachers than needed.
The latest initial teacher training census statistics published by the Department for Education on Thursday show that only 59 per cent of the secondary target was met in 2022-23. This is down from 79 per cent last year.
Against a target of 20,945 postgraduate secondary trainees, the government recruited just 12,356. It marks the ninth in the last 10 years that the target has been missed.
It follows repeated warnings about a growing recruitment and retention crisis, in the face of worsening school staff wellbeing and below-inflation pay rises.
