Zarah ChoudharyA new report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has found that secondary school teacher recruitment in 2024/25 was nearly 40% below target.
The Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2025 warned that under-recruitment is likely to continue into 2025/26, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability of the workforce.
Teacher leaving rates remained high, with 9.6% of teachers leaving state-funded teaching in 2022/23, a figure slightly above pre-pandemic levels.
Early-career teachers continue to leave at higher rates despite the national roll-out of the Early Career Framework.
Workload also remained a major issue affecting retention, with teachers working an average of five hours more per week than graduates in other jobs.
While some small reductions in working hours have been observed over the past decade, high workload remained the most common reason for leaving the profession.
In 2023/24, 90% of teachers considering leaving the profession cited high workload as a factor, with pupil behaviour emerging as one of the fastest-growing contributors to workload since the pandemic.
Flexible working remained limited in teaching compared to other graduate professions.
While some teachers have access to part-time roles and flexible arrangements, many believe flexible working is not compatible with career progression in schools.
In 2023/24, only one in five teachers and leaders said they would feel confident requesting flexible working arrangements.
The NFER’s recommendations for policymakers included developing a national workload reduction strategy, increasing investment in support services such as mental health and SEND provision, enhancing teacher pay competitiveness, and supporting schools in improving pupil behaviour.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “The Government made noises on the campaign trail that they would commit to tackling recruitment and retention.
“The NFER points to the current trajectory being inadequate to the task.
“For so long as the whole system is starved of the funding it so obviously needs, schools and colleges will experience greater financial pressure and the quality of education services will remain at risk.
“More schools are in deficit now than at any point since 2010 and class sizes are the largest on record.
“The core drivers of teachers leaving the profession are unchanged: workload, funding, excessive accountability measures, and below-inflation pay.”
He added: “The profession has grown weary of successive education secretaries promising fixes that never come.
“The NEU is carrying out an indicative ballot of its members to gauge willingness to strike over the Government’s completely unfunded recommendation of a 2.8% pay award for 2025/26.
“Without proper funding from Government, schools will continue to suffer and more teachers will leave.
“The Government has a limited window if it hopes to solve the teacher recruitment and retention crisis within this parliament. The clock is ticking.”
