The government has missed its primary teacher recruitment targets by the biggest gap on record – however overall recruitment has improved from last year’s disastrous numbers.
Initial teacher training census statistics published this morning show just 88 per cent of the primary target was reached, the lowest since 2010-11, when current records date back to.
For secondary subjects, the government met just 62 per cent of its target in 2024-25 – but this is actually up from 48 per cent last year.
It means the secondary recruitment target has now been missed 11 out of the last 12 years.
Overall, the total target for trainee recruitment for both primary and secondary was missed by 31 per cent. It’s an improvement from 40 per cent last year.
However, there were 27,746 new entrants to ITT this year, up 5 per cent from 26,432 in 2023-24.
The Department for Education said this reverses a trend of year-on-year decreases since the pandemic. But entrants remain below pre-pandemic levels.
DfE said the secondary increase was due to an increase in new entrants, but also because targets were cut from 26,360 to 23,955 for this year.
For primary, DfE attributed this to a decrease in entrants, but also a slight increase in the target from 9,180 to 9,400.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
