The Government’s efforts to boost teacher recruitment will be
dissected by CEOs of teacher training course providers, as well
as Teach First and the National Institute of Teaching.
2022 saw the highest number of teacher vacancies since 2010.
There were 1,600 vacancies in November 2021 compared with 2,300
in November 2022. Only 59% of the target for recruiting trainees
for Initial Teacher Training was achieved in 2022/23, down from
79% in 2021/22.
There are particular shortages of specialist science and maths
teachers, leading some to question the Government’s proposal of
making maths a compulsory subject up to age 18.
The witnesses (listed below) will be asked to comment on the
Government’s 2019 teacher recruitment and
retention strategy. This included the Early Career Framework,
a scheme that offers new teachers two years of structured
training and support with access to mentors and funded time off
their timetables, as well as a simpler “one stop” job application
system. It also included financial incentives and outlined plans
for new national professional qualifications (NPQs). MPs will be
interested to hear how successful these measures have been and
whether further improvements to workforce numbers are likely to
follow.
The cross-party Committee will ask the witnesses about their own
experiences of recruiting students into initial teacher training
courses, and challenges they may have faced with recruitment for
particular subjects.
There may also be questions about recruitment challenges in the
further education sector, which has faced deeper funding cuts
than the primary and secondary sector. Median pay for a college
teacher is now £34,500, compared with £41,500 for those in
schools.
MPs are likely to question whether the Department for Education,
which now receives teacher training course applications instead
of UCAS, could do more to promote the different routes into
teaching and make it clearer for applicants. One route the
Committee may want to quiz witnesses on is the recently
introduced postgraduate teaching apprenticeship.
There may also be questions about whether newly qualified
teachers are given sufficient training to support pupils with
special educational needs and disabilities or those from diverse
backgrounds, as well as about concerns that too few teachers are
from diverse backgrounds.
Read more about the Committee’s teacher recruitment, training and
retention inquiry and its terms of reference here.
Witness schedule from 10:00
· Russell Hobby, CEO, Teach
First
· Dr Annabel Watson,
University of Exeter
· Dr Jasper Green, Head of
ITE, University College London’s Institute of
Education
· Melanie Renowden, CEO,
National Institute of Teaching
· Richard Gill, Chair of the
Teaching School Hubs Council, and CEO of The Arthur Terry
Learning Partnership
