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Teacher shortages likely to continue for a decade
Schools are facing 10 years of teacher shortages, TES can reveal.
Demand for new staff will not peak until 2019, according to a little-noticed section of the latest version of the Department for Education’s teacher supply model. It shows that the number of teachers needed in secondaries each year will continue to be higher than the current - unmet - demand until at least 2026.
Rising pupil numbers and recruitment problems mean the DfE is already missing targets for new trainees.
“We are looking at the prospect of another decade of teacher shortages,” teacher workforce expert Professor John Howson told TES. “I am seriously worried about how schools are going to fill places.”
The disclosure comes in the week that the DfE launched a National Teaching Service in an attempt to help plug staffing gaps.
TES has learned that some schools are turning to former pupils to bolster their staff and others are using financial incentives to try to “poach” teachers from other schools.
A DfE spokesperson said the number of teachers in England’s schools was at a record high, more people were returning to teaching than ever before, and the number of teachers recruited in “most secondary subjects” was up on last year.
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