How well is the teaching profession doing at increasing the number of trainees from different ethnic groups in England? The government first started considering this issue in 1997, when Baroness Morris, then a junior Minister at the Department, hosted a conference in Stratford, East London to discuss raising involvement from minority groups, at the instigation of the then Teacher Training Agency (TTA).

Two reports in the next twelve years charted the progress being achieved. Now ethnicity data in included in the annual Initial Teacher training Census conduced by the DfE. Progress has been better with some groups as the following table for the current cohort and the previous 2019/20 cohorts makes clear.

	2019/20	2021/22
Asian ethnicity	3196	3608
Black ethnicity	1117	1372
Mixed ethnicity	971	1103
Other ethnicity	378	538
Total ethnicity groups	5662	6621
White ethnicity	26495	26724

Source: DfE ITT Census additional tables accessed 13^th December 2021

In these three cohorts, the proportion of the White ethnicity Group has reduced from 82% to 80% of the total. Trainees of the Asian Group make up the largest ethnic group followed by the Black group that contains those of both African and Caribbean ethnicity. Over time, as society become more multi-cultural those reporting as of ‘mixed’ ethnicity are likely to grow significantly.

One significantly under-represented Group is that of ‘gypsy and travellers’ -the Group that perform worst in education attainment- with just five recorded postgraduate trainees, albeit that is better than the three of last year and the four of the year before.

It would be interesting to view this data by both geographical region and by subjects, as there are likely to be substantial differences.  Interestingly at the aggregate level on postgraduate courses, Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani trainee numbers fell this year. This may, in part be due to the new category of ‘not stated’ introduced this year. The number of African trainees increased, but those identified as Caribbean fell back from the high recorded last year.

The numbers recorded as either Irish or Scottish on postgraduate courses are negligible. Presumably, the fee regime makes studying to be a teacher in England unattractive to these groups of graduates.

The good news is that there are nearly 8,000 trainees in the London Region, usually a significant area for recruits from ethnic minorities. This is also an area with a high demand for teachers as TeachVac www.teachvac.co.uk regularly notes in its newsletters.