Teacher training providers have warned that the “enormous” pressure they face to recruit trainee teachers could be resulting in unsuitable candidates being taken on and higher dropout rates.
School-based initial teacher training (ITT) providers said today that the consequences of a “legacy” of government “pressure” to ”recruit at all costs” could “now be playing out”.
The National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT) issued the warning after Department for Education figures revealed that the number of trainee teachers who dropped out or did not achieve qualified teacher status (QTS) rose to its highest rate in five years last year.
NASBTT also said that “insufficient funding and ever-increasing pressures on staff” in schools mean the career is “proving to be unattractive”.
Earlier this year Susan Acland-Hood, the DfE’s permanent secretary, wrote to all ITT providers about the “concerning” trend in “significant rejection rates” for teacher training courses, urging them to “look carefully at rejection rates” and ensure that all eligible candidates “are given the opportunity to demonstrate their suitability”.
The DfE missed its target for secondary teacher trainees starting courses in September 2022 by 41 per cent, with fears of under-recruitment again next year.
Teacher training providers ‘forced to take risks’
NASBTT executive director Emma Hollis said: “ITT providers are under enormous pressure from government to recruit - and are frequently challenged over acceptance rates.”
Ms Hollis said that the “enormous pressure” on providers can mean that they take ”greater risks on candidates that they might otherwise have rejected in the past”.
“We believe that the legacy of this pressure to recruit at all costs may now be playing out and candidates who may not have been accepted on to programmes in the past, but who have been accepted in the particular circumstances in which we find ourselves, are proving not to be suitable for the profession - or find the profession does not suit them.”
Of the 31,747 total postgraduate trainees who began teacher training courses last academic year, 2,236 did not qualify, up 40 per cent from the 1,597 students who dropped out during the previous year out of a similar total number of trainees (31,698).
And Ms Hollis said: ”My members also report that the situation in schools, with insufficient funding and ever-increasing pressures on staff, means that the trainees’ experiences of life in schools is proving to be unattractive, and so other careers are considered instead.”
She added that this could be connected “to a rising desire for more flexible-working opportunities, which are rarely available in schools”.
Earlier this year Tes revealed that a third of ITT providers were hearing from teacher trainee applicants that flexible working was important to them.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “There are now 27,000 more teachers in our schools than in 2010 - a rise of 6 per cent. This makes it the highest number of full-time teachers on record since the School Workforce Census began in 2010. Today’s figures show that the vast majority of initial teacher training (ITT) candidates go on to gain qualified teacher status (QTS) and into the important roles in our classrooms.
“Through our reforms, we have created a golden thread of development that runs all the way from ITT through to the Early Careers Framework and our reformed suit of National Professional Qualifications, which help prepare teachers for leadership positions.
“Teachers will get a 6.5 per cent pay award beginning in September, and starting salaries are now at least £30,000, which recognises the hard work of teachers and leaders. This is alongside a further £2 billion investment in our schools next year, taking school funding to its highest level in history.”
