Union warning over 'grave problems' as 'concerning' new figures on teacher recruitment released

The number primary school teacher training entrants in England has fallen, statistics from the government show.

Data from the Department for Education (DfE) shows the Government achieved just 88% of its postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) recruitment target for primary schools in 2024/25, down from 94% last year.

The primary target has increased from 9,180 to 9,400 in the past year, while the number of entrants decreased from 8,633 to 8,258, the figures show.

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Education experts have warned that Labour’s manifesto pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers may be difficult to achieve unless more action is taken.

In contrast, for secondary school subjects, 62% of the Government’s target was reached for 2024/25, up from 48% in 2023/24.

The Government only met its secondary teacher recruitment targets in five out of 17 subjects: classics, biology, English, history and physical education.

Overall, the percentage of the ITT target achieved for all subjects – secondary and primary – was 69% in 2023/24, compared with 60% last year.

There were 27,746 new entrants to ITT this year, up by 5% from 26,342 in 2023/24, but the number of entrants remains “below pre-pandemic levels”, according to the DfE.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “It is of great concern that recruitment in primary subjects has worsened since last year.

“The problems in recruiting trainee teachers clearly continue to be grave but this is only one of the issues behind teacher shortages across the country.

“The Labour Government made a good start with this year’s pay award but that must be followed