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Another year and another 40,000 teachers quit the chalkface

Recruitment & Retention Pay and conditions Teaching staff
For the second year running, almost 40,000 teachers have quit the profession.
Image: Adobe Stock

The latest workforce figures from the Department for Education (DfE, 2024a) show that the retention crisis is not abating.

The most recent figures covering 2022/23 show that 39,971 teachers left state-funded teaching for reasons other than retirement – or 8.8% of the workforce.

It comes after 39,597 teachers similarly quit the chalkface in 2021/22 (equating to 8.7% of the workforce).

Add to this those teachers who retired or died, it means that in a period of two years we have lost more than 87,000 teachers.

While the latest figures show that 44,002 teachers entered the profession in 2022/23, this was 3,900 fewer than entered teaching in 2022.

Overall, the data shows that we now have 468,693 full-time equivalent teachers working in our schools, just 300 more than in 2022. We also have 282,925 teaching assistants, a rise of 1,800 year-on-year. This compares to pupil numbers, which have risen 18,200 in the last year according to separate DfE data also published last week (DfE, 2024b).

When it comes to early career teachers (ECTs), the figures show high numbers are still quitting early into their careers. A total of 11.3% quit in 2022/23 after just one year of teaching. This figure rises to 25.9% after three years at the chalkface and 32.5% after five years.

The figures also show that teacher vacancies have increased by 20% to 2,800 as of November 2023. This is up from 2,300 a year earlier and from 1,100 in November 2020.

The current rate of vacancies is 6 per 1,000 teachers, up from 2 a year previously. The number of temporarily filled posts has also increased from 2,100 to 3,700 in the last three years.

Commenting on the figures, Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that it was “becoming increasingly difficult” to fill teacher vacancies.

He described schools having to advertise roles several times and being forced to use expensive supply staff in the intervening periods.

He added: “The next government cannot afford to be so complacent. We need a comprehensive plan to address the recruitment and retention crisis and ensure schools and colleges can attract and retain the teachers they need to maintain a high standard of education for all pupils.”

The DfE data (2024b) also shows that number of pupils being taught in classes with more than 30 pupils has increased again and now stands at 1,051,210 – up from 1,018,390 and the highest figure since 2001.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said that improving funding and teacher pay and reducing workload was “no longer a choice but an absolute necessity for any incoming government”.

He added: “Pay cuts and sky-high workload have driven this recruitment and retention crisis.

“Last year a new record was set for the number of teachers leaving the profession for reasons other than retirement or death and the number is up again this year. Teacher retention rates have worsened for almost all yearly cohorts – more than one in four teachers leave within three years of qualifying.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “We have 18,000 more pupils in our schools this year, but the number of new teachers has fallen by almost 4,000, and nearly as many are leaving the profession as are starting out in it.

“Government measures so far, including the introduction of the Early Career Framework programme targeted at supporting teachers within their first two years, have failed to get to grips with the situation.

“What is needed is fundamental changes to restore teaching as a profession to aspire to. That means reversing more than a decade of real-terms pay cuts over the next Parliament, reducing workload, and reforming the harmful high-stakes Ofsted inspections, including an end to blunt single-word grades.”