“While we welcome the improvement in ITT recruitment in secondary subjects, it remains the case that the target has been missed in every year since 2012/13, with the exception of 2020/21. 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. Another factor is that many teachers leave the profession early in their careers. The only answer to this is a significant improvement in pay and conditions which attracts people into teaching and keeps them there. The Labour government made a good start with this year’s pay award but that must be followed up with more action. It will be extremely difficult for it to achieve its aim of recruiting 6,500 new teachers if we cannot even meet current recruitment targets.”