The teacher recruitment crisis is set to deepen according to fresh data which shows the supply of teachers has fallen well below national targets.
The greatest concern is for secondary schools with the Government’s Teacher Supply Model (TSM) benchmark showing just 82% of required trainee teacher places were filled.
New provisional statistics released by the Department for Education show that even though primary schools succeeded their target by 16%, secondary schools are still struggling to recruit. When taken together, primary and secondary subjects filled 94% of their TSM target.
The Association for School and College Leaders (ASCL) said the trainee teacher shortfall will have “serious impact” due to targets not being met in secondary subjects for the third year in succession.
Brian Lightman, ASCL General Secretary, commented: “This means that there are more than 3,400 fewer secondary trainees entering the profession this year than are needed.
“The government wants 90% of pupils to sit GCSEs in the EBacc subjects. How will this be possible when there will clearly not be enough teachers for them?
“There must be more incentives to attract trainees into the profession and more must be done to publicise the great career opportunities that teaching offers.”
The government launched a new TV advert last month in an effort to attract more people into teaching, which attracted complaints for being “misleading”.
SCHOOLS NorthEast would like to hear from head teachers and school leaders in our region: how are you faring with teaching staff recruitment? Which areas present the biggest challenges?
Please take a few minutes to fill in this survey and provide more insight into the recruitment situation in North East schools.
SCHOOLS NorthEast is developing a dedicated recruitment portal for North East schools that will support recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers in the region. If you would like to be kept informed of developments in this area please email info@schoolsnortheast.com
