Teacher recruitment targets missed for five years running

The government has failed to meet its own teacher recruitment targets for five consecutive years, analysis of DfE data has shown.

The Labour Party analysis of initial teacher training statistics shows that the shortfall in teachers recruited between September 2013 and September 2017 is more than 10,000.

There has also been a sharp fall in the number further education teachers, falling by nearly 20,000 since 2010.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said: “This government has created a crisis at every stage of our education system, missing its own teacher recruitment targets in five consecutive years while thousands of teachers are lost from FE.”

A spokesman for the DfE said: "Retention rates have been broadly stable for the past 20 years and the teaching profession continues to be an attractive career."

“We want to continue to help schools and colleges recruit and retain the best teachers. We are consulting on proposals to improve development opportunities for teachers across the country and have a range of generous bursaries to recruit teachers into subjects like maths and physics. Alongside this, we have introduced bursaries of up to £25,000 to attract new graduates to teach maths and English in the FE sector.”