The Government’s promise to fund almost 2,000 extra teacher training places was widely welcomed this week, but analysis shows that the worst-hit areas may still be in difficulties.
The extra 1,500 primary and 400 secondary places, available from next September, were hailed by training providers and headteachers as a step in the right direction.
But while London officially had 820 primary vacancies at the start of this year, it has been allocated just 198 additional places, compared to 273 extra for Yorkshire and Humberside, which had only 60 vacancies.
The Teacher Training Agency’s main criterion for allocating extra places is the quality of the provider, with priority given to bids from universities and partnerships with top grades from the Office for Standards in Education.
Recruitment expert Professor John Howson said: “It’s all very well to say quality is important, but their responsibility is to deliver sufficient new teachers to schools that need them. They are manifestly failing to do that.”
A TTA spokesman said the figures were issued nationally and not treated on a regional basis. But the agency is looking at regional issues, and has a pilot project running in the East Midlands. It is also working on a recruitment policy specifically for London. Training providers outside London noted that many of their students went on to work in the capital.
But John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads’ Association, said: “We need the highest proportion of places in the areas of greatest teacher shortage, because many people do remain in the same area after finishing training.”
The new targets would increase the number of places from 29,890 (28,966 recruited) in 20012 to 31,790 next September and 32,425 in 20034, excluding employment-based routes such as the Graduate Teacher Programme.
This year recruitment was up, but still fell short of secondary targets. Primary courses were oversubscribed, and the recruitment target was cut.
Phil Willis, the Lib Dems education spokesman, welcomed the increased training places, but said: “Unless targets are accompanied by a radical improvement in pay, conditions of service, and workload for teachers, it will simply be a case of in one door and out another.”
Education minister Stephen Timms said the Government would respond to schools’ demands for more teachers - contradicting previous ministerial statements, according to David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers.
“Is the agenda to criticise heads for recruiting teachers instead of classroom assistants, or support heads if they do recruit more teachers? I do wish the Government would get its act together,” he said.
