The new Schools Minister will be questioned by the
Education Committee in the final session of its inquiry into teacher
recruitment, training and retention.
The Minister will be asked for his views on claims that the
country faces a “crisis” in staffing levels across the schools
sector, particularly in specialist subjects like maths, sciences,
IT and languages.
On 7 December, the Department for Education revealed that its
targets for recruitment to Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses
was missed by 50% for secondary schools, a downgrading from 57%
in 2022/23.
The persistent failure to hit targets for recruiting specialist
teachers has meant that STEM subjects are increasingly taught by
non-specialists. The Minister will be asked about ways to expand
and improve Subject Knowledge Enhancement courses, designed to
train up existing teachers to deliver shortage subjects such as
physics and maths.
MPs will ask about the effectiveness of bursaries in boosting ITT
course recruitment in some subjects, and whether they might be
skewing recruitment away from subjects where no, or low,
bursaries are available.
Meanwhile, having looked at other sectors with recruitment
challenges, the cross-party Committee will ask whether a tie-in
“golden handcuffs” system – used to keep newly-trained dentists
in the NHS – could be considered as a way to retain
teachers.
Mr Hinds will be questioned on the effectiveness of the Workload
Reduction Toolkit – a set of guidance the Department issued to
school leaders to cut down unnecessary tasks and improve
teachers’ work/life balance. The Committee has heard that the
Toolkit has not been widely engaged with, but that teachers who
have used it found it useful. Similar feedback has been given
regarding the Department’s Flexible Working Toolkit.
After a year of industrial action, the Committee will ask the
Minister to respond to questions that retention and recruitment
will depend on wages increasing again in future relative to
inflation.
Witnesses from 10.00:
· The Rt Hon MP, Minister of State
(Minister of State for Schools)
· Sue Lovelock, Director of
Teaching Workforce: Candidates, Trainees, Strategy, Portfolio and
Analysis
