Commenting in response to warnings from school leaders’ union NAHT and teaching union the NEU that latest data showed the government was on track to miss its secondary teacher recruitment targets by nearly half ahead of the new academic year, Jack Worth, School Workforce Lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) said:
“NFER’s latest forecast of secondary teacher training recruitment in England shows that only 52% of the required number of teachers are likely to be recruited this year, with all subjects except history, classics and PE being below target. Without an urgent policy response to make teaching more attractive, schools will face increasingly intense shortages over the next few years, which are likely to impact negatively on the quality of pupils’ education.
“Addressing teacher retention should be at the heart of dealing with the teacher supply challenge, with a new long-term strategy needed to reduce teacher workload, increase the competitiveness of teacher pay and flexible working opportunities, and enable better access to high-quality professional development.”