The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has today published an
analysis of the post-pandemic school
workforce.
The recruitment and retention of teachers in England has
dominated education headlines for the last decade. In the midst
of the pandemic, a surge in applications for
initial teacher training provided some brief respite. But,
for the past year, there has been speculation about whether that
surge will persist when the pandemic fades. Last week, the
Department for Education released the first comprehensive
statistics since June 2021 on the size of the school
workforce, which included recruitment and retention rates.
This new analysis piece by Director of School Workforce, James
Zuccollo, considers the latest data in order to understand the
trends on teacher recruitment and retention.
The blog has been published today – you can read it here.
Key findings
- Growth in the number of teachers in England slowed this year,
averaging only 1% compared to 1.6% in 2020/21. In London primary
schools, the number of teachers fell by over 2%,
causing the pupil-teacher ratio to rise.
- More teachers are quitting the profession before their
retirement age. In 2010/11, only 2% of secondary heads quit each
year before retirement but that has now risen to
7.5% in 2020/21.
- Retention rates have dramatically improved through the
pandemic for early-career teachers but have not improved
for experienced teachers, who continue to leave the
profession at an increasing rate.
- Recruitment to initial teacher training remains low in
2021/22, with applications over 20% lower
compared to the same time last year.
Read the full blog here.
