New figures reveal the government is continuing to favour school-led teacher training over university provision, despite recent praise for the sector.
Recently, Ben Ramm, the DfE’s head of teacher supply, has said that a “pragmatic” approach was being taken towards initial teacher training rather than a structural preference for either school-led or university-led ITT.
But today’s DfE figures show:
- The proportion of postgraduate training places allocated to universities in 2017 is 36 per cent, compared to 42 per cent in 2015, when allocations were last made. Meanwhile, the number of school-based teacher training places has risen from 58 per cent to 64 per cent.
- The government has also revealed which 53 teacher training providers have been given three-year allocations for teacher training places. Among them are 27 Scitts and 26 HE providers, including Oxford, Cambridge and UCL Institute of Education in London.
- The government also published its calculations for how many trainee teachers are needed to enter postgraduate training in 2017. It needs six per cent more than in 2016, but UCAS figures published earlier this year show the number of applicants is down.
- The new figures also show how the demand in each subject is changing Almost twice as many geography trainees are needed for 2017 compared to than in 2016: the target is up from 778 last year to 1,531 this year, despite over-recruitment in 2016.
- History is also predicted to see demand soar with a target of 1,160 trainees in 2017, up from 816 in 2016.
- The highest targets are in maths: 3,102 trainees are needed, the same number as last year. In English where demand has increased from the 2,253 trainees needed in 2016 to 2,426 this year. The government missed its targets in both maths and English last year.
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