Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“It is astonishing that the government is cutting its secondary school teacher training targets, at a time when schools are in the grip of a spiralling recruitment and retention crisis. Last year just half (50%) of the secondary teachers estimated to be needed were recruited, with targets missed in 12 out of 15 subjects.

School leaders are struggling to recruit enough teachers in both primary and secondary schools, with class sizes growing and staff increasingly having to teach subjects they do not specialise in. The nation’s children deserve better.

“The government’s 2019 recruitment and retention strategy has comprehensively failed to attract recent graduates and career changers to commit to the profession or improve the retention of existing teachers and leaders.  Far from lowering ambitions for future recruitment, the government’s response should be to properly address the key issues that are fuelling this crisis, including years of real-terms pay and funding cuts, and the intolerable pressures caused by Ofsted inspections and unsustainable levels of workload.”