Select committee: Education Committee
Conclusion 39
Second Report - Teacher recruitment, training and retention
Published 17 May 2024
Paragraph 163
Addressed to Department for Education
Education Committee Teacher recruitment, training and retention All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We have significant concerns about the negative impacts of subject specific teacher shortages. These include compromising the quality of teaching where subjects are being taught by teachers without subject expertise and the reduction of subject provision where schools do not have sufficient specialist teaching capacity. We also heard that lack of specialist teachers can have an adverse impact on take up of certain subjects. This is evidenced by modern foreign languages having the lowest take up by pupils when compared to other English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects. Out of the 86.2% of pupils who entered four of the five EBacc components 88.9% were missing the languages component in 2022/23.
From: Education Committee, Second Report - Teacher recruitment, training and retention (HC 119), paragraph 163, 17 May 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 16 January 2025 (deadline 17 July 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it "will consider the report's findings and recommendations carefully" and points to its own programme, including recruiting an additional 6,500 teachers, while setting out agreement and disagreement on individual recommendations.
- On extending the Teacher Workforce Model to further education, the Department says it "will continue to keep the schools and further education estimates separate" because of "the differing factors determining both the demand and supply of teachers".
- On subject-level data, it says it "will explore publishing subject level leaver rates" in future School Workforce Census publications, but does not publish reasons for leaving by subject "due to small sample sizes".
- On a bursary for career changers, it states "We do not believe there is a need to introduce a bursary specifically for career changers", noting that such trainees can access existing bursaries and scholarships.
- On NPQ funding, it is "committed to continue delivering funded NPQs in 2025", with future funding "confirmed in due course following the multiyear Spending Review".