Commenting on an analysis commissioned by the NFER on the impact of pay and other incentives on teacher recruitment and retention, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"This NFER analysis highlights yet again that unless teacher pay is addressed the recruitment and retention crisis that is gripping education will continue.
"The teacher supply crisis has been made and sustained by a government unwilling to change path no matter what the damage to learners and those that teach, support and develop them.
"This new analysis finds that if teacher pay merely increases in line with average earnings, the Department for Education will continue to recruit barely half the required number of secondary trainees per year. And by 2027/28, primary trainee teachers will drop to similar levels of shortfall despite falling rolls.
"This is a big problem that requires big solutions, and long-term strategies are long overdue. With teaching shortages now across many subjects, piecemeal solutions will not work.
"The NEU has already put the Government on watch and is calling for a fully funded above inflation pay increase to start the process of pay correction for the profession. A whole market approach to pay restoration is needed but must be accompanied by politicians taking workload reduction seriously, and a holistic approach to making jobs in schools as attractive as those elsewhere in the economy."