Commenting on the government’s decision to cut secondary school training targets, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“This Government’s failure to hit its own teacher training targets stretches back more than a decade. A generation of children have already had to endure the consequences, in many cases taught by teachers without the relevant subject specialism. Teachers and school leaders are forced to bake this into the system, making the best of a bad situation.
“The Government’s solution? To move the goalposts. Yet more proof that this is a Government in ever-deepening denial of the crisis in recruitment and retention. A crisis of their own making. A decade-and-a-half of pay cuts. Sky-high workload.
“The Government's failure to make the investment needed to repair the damage does a disservice to parents, to children and staff - who are now at breaking point. The sooner Gillian Keegan wakes up to the causes of the shortage, the better the education system will be."