Teacher stats expose recruitment and retention crisis

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

New statistics released today from the Department for Education have shown:

• More than 100,000 under-40s have quit teaching in the last 5 years.

• A third of teachers quit within 5 years of qualifying.

• The number of teaching vacancies has more than doubled in the last 2 years.

• 22% of maths teachers and 42% of physics teachers have no relevant post-A-level qualification.

Responding to the new school workforce statistics, published today by the Department for Education, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson said:

“These alarming figures show how badly the Conservatives are letting our children down.

“They are missing their own recruitment targets and driving tens of thousands of young teachers out of the profession, leaving millions of children to be taught by someone who isn’t an expert in their subject.

“The Conservatives have neglected our children and young people for far too long. Every child deserves the chance to flourish, and that means investing in great schools and teachers.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The ‘School workforce in England, reporting year 2022’ statistics are available here.

They show that:

• 101,090 teachers have retired or left the profession over the last 5 years before reaching their 40th birthday, including 22,914 under-40s who left in 2021-22 alone.

• 31.3% of teachers who qualified in 2017 are no longer teaching, 5 years after they qualified.

• The number of teacher vacancies has more than doubled from 1,098 in November 2020 to 2,334 in November 2022.

• 21.5% of maths teachers have no relevant post-A-level qualification, up from 19.2% last year. For physics teachers it’s 42.4%, up from 40.6% last year.