The Department for Education has dropped its recruitment target for secondary teacher trainees by 9 per cent, despite missing its target by half this year amid warnings of a deepening supply crisis.

The government has estimated that 23,955 postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) secondary trainees will need to begin their training next academic year to provide enough new teachers for 2025-2026.

This target is down from the 26,360 secondary trainees that the DfE said it would need for this year - a target that it missed by half.

The DfE said the lower secondary target was set due to “more favourable supply forecasts” for both new teachers and returners.

Trainee targets are published every year by the DfE and are set by looking at factors including historic recruitment, retention and future need.

Just 50 per cent of the 26,360 secondary trainees (13,102) the government said were needed this year were recruited on to courses, prompting school leaders to once again label the teacher shortage as “catastrophic”.

However, the government said it has lowered the secondary teacher trainee target this year because supply forecasts are “more favourable” and growth of secondary student numbers has slowed.

Primary teacher trainee target increases

Meanwhile, it has raised the primary teacher trainee target by 2 per cent, from 9,180 to 9,400, after lowering it last year.

The DfE said the increase was a result of primary recruitment and retention forecasts “becoming less favourable this year, leading to a slightly increased need for ITT trainees to meet future demand, despite falling pupil numbers”.

Overall, trainee targets increased across eight secondary subjects for 2024-25, and decreased for nine subjects.

For mathematics the target rose by 3.5 per cent to 3,065, up from 2,960 in 2023-24, while in English the target fell by 24.5 per cent to 2,290, down from 3,035 last year.

Arts subjects saw the largest percentage increase in targets, with the number of art and design trainees needed rising by 32.7 per cent to 1,095.

And the number of trainees the government said it needed for drama rose by 50 per cent from 300 to 450.

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However, the number forecast to be needed for design technology fell by 26 per cent from 2,110 to 1,565.

The target for secondary English Baccalaureate trainees has decreased by 1,995 compared with 2023-24, from 17,500 to 15,505 (an 11.4 per cent decrease). The subjects driving the decreased targets are physics, geography, modern languages and English.

The EBacc and science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subject with the largest percentage increase in its target this year is computing, increasing by 160 trainees, from 1,170 to 1,330 (a 14 per cent increase).

The EBacc and Stem subjects with the largest percentage decrease in their targets are geography and physics respectively.