It's ‘Now or Never’ as Teacher Shortages Lead to Record Class Sizes, Report Warns

Pupils in a classroom

CLASS sizes have hit record highs amid “growing signs” that teacher shortages are negatively impacting education quality in England, a report warned yesterday.

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) said this year is a “now or never” moment for the government to demonstrate that it will deliver on a manifesto pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers.

In the report, officially published today, the educational research charity described the forthcoming spending review as a “crucial opportunity” as “sluggish recruitment and persistently high leaving rates have led to real impacts on schools and pupils.”

It warned that the number of unfilled teaching vacancies in state schools is now double the pre-pandemic rate, and 15 per cent of secondary pupils were in classes of more than 30 in 2023-24 — up from 10 per cent in 2015-16.

National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “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.”

The NEU is carrying out an indicative ballot on potential industrial action over the government’s unfunded recommendation of a 2.8 per cent pay award for 2025-26.

The NFER report recommends a 2025-26 pay award for teachers in excess of 3 per cent, as well as spending increases on financial incentives targeting shortage subjects.

School leaders’ union NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said: “These stark findings reflect the severe staffing crisis school leaders are grappling with day in day out.”

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio said: “We are far beyond the point where small steps and half measures can address the scale of the recruitment and retention crisis in education.”

NASUWT teaching union general secretary Patrick Roach said: “The government can be in no doubt that a failure to deliver on pay and working conditions will only lead to a further decline in teacher numbers and a deterioration in the quality of education provided to children and young people.”

The Department for Education said: “On top of the 5.5 per cent pay award announced last year, we are also taking steps to support teachers’ well-being and ease workload pressures including encouraging schools to allow their staff to work more flexibly so more teachers stay in the profession.”