Classroom teacher turnover in London needs watching

Posted on November 4, 2025 by John Howson

Historically, the turnover rate for classroom teachers in London has tended to be higher than elsewhere in England

Year	Inner London	Outer London
2016/17	14.9%	12.5%
2017/18	13.1%	11.9%
2018/19	12.8%	11.4%
2019/20	9.9%	8.4%
2020/21	11.1%	9.6%
2021/22	12.8%	11.1%
2022/23	12.3%	10.7%
2023/24	12.5%	10.7%

Source DfE evidence to STRB October 2025 Data annex

In 2016/17, turnover for classroom teachers in the Inner London boroughs reached 14.9%, or around one in seven classroom teachers either leaving the profession or moving school. Three years later, in the year where covid disrupted the summer term, turnover rates dropped below 10% for the only time in the last eight years. Once the pandemic subsided, turnover quickly returned to over 12%, or one in eight teachers.

In Outer London turnover rates have followed a similar pattern to those in Inner London, but a couple of percentage points lower than in the Inner London boroughs.

By way of contrast, in the North East, during 2023/24 turnover for classroom teachers was just 7.7%, some 4.8% lower than in Inner London schools.

Leaving aside the two years where covid affected the recruitment round (2019/20 and 2020/21), the national turnover rate for all levels of posts (classroom, leadership and headship) has generally been between 9-10%, but has been falling. In 2023/24 it was 9% compared with 10.6% in 2016/17.

Rates of turnover for assistant head and deputy heads probably reflect demand side issues more than what is happening on the supply side. When school rolls are rising, new schools may be created increasing demand: falling rolls may mean posts are cutback, and demand reduced, so less turnover.

Headship turnover is very closely linked to the age profile of headteachers. When a cohort of new younger headteachers has replaced a generation that has retired, turnover is likely to fall for a few years. However, turnover tends to be within a narrow range of between 9.5-10.5% per year. There is now no discernible London effect on headteacher turnover, as there used to be many years ago when headteacher salaries were more tightly controlled.

Might we now be entering a period of stability, with lower turnover rates for classroom teachers , especially should the possible upheaval in the graduate job market created by the AI revolution coincide with the period of stable rolls in the secondary secto,r and falling rolls in the primary sector?

Year	Primary	Secondary	STEM subjects	Non-STEM	All Teachers
2016/17	86.35	83.1%	81.2%	84.5%	84.9%
2023/24	90.0%	89.4%	88.0%	90.2%	89/7%

The table taken from various tables in the DfE evidence to the STRB shows a consistent trend of improved retention for teachers at the end of the first year of service. However, the same tables show that there is still a job to be done to retain these teachers in larger numbers beyond their first few years of service. The government needs to be aware that teaching is now a global career, and teachers from England can easily find work overseas.

Overseas teachers in England. More or less?

Posted on November 2, 2025 by John Howson

How far have teachers from outside the United Kingdom helped keep schools in England staffed during the period when there were teacher shortages? Although it takes a great deal of research to know what and where these teachers are working in England, the DfE in its evidence to the STRB (Teachers Pay Body) did provide some interesting data about changes in numbers of these teachers by their country of origin, between the 2015/16 and 2023/24 November teacher census returns. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evidence-to-the-strb-2026-pay-award-for-teachers-and-leaders data annex

For the purpose of this blog, countries have been divided into three groups: EEA – effectively all of Europe; countries with 20^th century links to the United Kingdon, either as current Commonwealth countries or for other historical reasons, and countries that do not fit into either of the two other groups.

Taking the EEA countries first. It might be expected that post-BREXIT the numbers their had reduced. This is true for some countries, including France and Germany, and, more interestingly, for the Irish Republic, where there was a loss of more than 900 teachers between 2015/16 census and the 2023/34 census.

EEA	2015/16	2023/24	difference
France	2210	2085	-125
Germany	645	605	-40
Ireland	3520	2595	-925
Netherlands	225	225	0
Sweden	95	90	-5
			-1095

Elsewhere in the EEA list of countries, there were more teachers in 2023/24 than in 2015/16

EEA	2015/16	2023/24	difference
Austria	60	60	0
Belgium	95	100	5
Bulgaria	100	205	105
Czech Republic	75	100	25
Denmark	65	65	0
Finland	60	60	0
Greece	260	590	330
Hungary	175	270	95
Italy	485	850	365
Malta	30	30	0
Norway	25	35	10
Other EEA	15	30	15
Poland	1155	1540	385
Portugal	255	430	175
Republic of Croatia	40	60	20
Republic of Latvia	45	80	35
Republic of Lithuania	110	160	50
Romania	350	740	390
Slovak Republic	150	180	30
Slovenia, Republic	40	60	20
Spain	1255	2100	845
Switzerland	50	55	5
			2905

There were nearly 2,000 more EEA teachers in England in 2023/24 according to these numbers. Greece, Italy and Poland between them accounting for nearly half the increase in EEA teacher numbers, and Spain alone, a further 40% of the total.

For countries with historic links to the United Kingdom there has been a marked decline in teachers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada recorded in the DfE census, and increase in teachers from Jamaica, some countries in Africa, and from the Indian sub-continent.

LINKS TO UK	2015/16	2023/24	difference
Australia	1685	1290	-395
Canada	1580	1330	-250
Guyana	60	45	-15
New Zealand	745	480	-265
Sierra Leone	85	75	-10
Trinidad & Tobago	105	95	-10
			-945

Jamaica, India and Pakistan and South Africa together account for the bulk of the increase in teachers from this group of countries.

LINKS TO UK	2015/16	2023/24	difference
Bangladesh	100	115	15
Cyprus	55	95	40
Ghana	515	665	150
India	865	1615	750
Jamaica	745	1550	805
Kenya	145	160	15
Malaysia	75	100	25
Mauritius	115	135	20
Nigeria	580	860	280
Pakistan	280	560	280
South Africa	1575	1815	240
Sri Lanka	110	165	55
Uganda	70	90	20
Zimbabwe	375	450	75
			2770

Teacher numbers from other countries not in the above two groups tend to be small in number.

Israel was the only country with fewer teachers, down from 60 to 55; a loss of just five teachers.

ROW	2015/16	2023/24	difference
Algeria	55	90	35
Brazil	60	125	65
Cameroon	70	90	20
China	145	315	170
Colombia	55	95	40
Iran	130	160	30
Morocco	55	85	30
Other ROW	955	1540	585
Russia	80	120	40
Turkey	100	170	70
Ukraine	35	95	60
USA	845	985	140
			1285

China and the USA were the only two countries providing more than 100 teachers during the period between 2015/16 and 2023/24.

As Michael Gove provided QTS to teachers trained in the USA over a decade ago, the number of teachers from the USA seems surprisingly small. However, it may not include those teaching in international schools in England that are part of the private sector.

While it is clear that a substantially more ‘overseas’ teachers were recorded in the 2023/24 census than in the 2015/26 census, their numbers alone would not have been enough to have solved the teacher supply crisis. Might they have made a difference to the percentage of teachers from some ethnic groups?

Pay your bus fare to learn

Posted on October 31, 2025 by John Howson

The government has responded to the House of Commons Select Committee report of earlier this year about bus services in England. I am sad to see that not only will free transport not be available nationally for those under the age of 22, but the government doesn’t even seem prepared to concede that there is an anomaly regarding free transport to school or college for those aged between 16-18.Buses connecting communities: Government Response

Recommendation 15

The Department’s review of the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme should consider piloting a free bus pass for under-22s, valid for travel at any time of day. This would support access to work and skills opportunities for younger people and help embed long-term public transport use.

Response from the government

The Government recognises the benefits that free travel for under-22s could bring. However, we are operating in a challenging fiscal environment and the future funding for bus services has already been allocated through the Spending Review, with no funding available for such a scheme. Expanding concessionary travel would therefore be unaffordable within this SR period without diverting funding away from maintaining current bus service levels.

I read the dead hand of HM Treasury here. Perhaps the Select Committee could also have sent the recommendation to the Department for Education for their views, although I suspect the answer would be the same. Local authorities serving rural areas cannot afford to subsidise 16-18 travel as might be the case in the large urban areas.

My previous post showed how out of line education in Oxfordshire is compared with other key indicators for the districts within the county. Should the NHS pay more to support children with SEND? | John Howson This is a missed opportunity by the government to improve education for those in rural areas living in poverty. Sadly, it seems like a missed chance. Both a lack of ambition and a lack of resources seem to be the reasons.

Should the NHS pay more to support children with SEND?

Posted on October 30, 2025 by John Howson

The new index of deprivation, published today by the government, contains an important message about affluent areas such as Oxfordshire. English indices of deprivation 2025: statistical release – GOV.UK

Oxfordshire ranks highly on three of the four areas I looked at, and especially so on Health and Employment, where the lowest rankings are 65/296 in health and 36/296 in employment, and the highest 8/296 in health and 4/296 in employment.

District Council	Education	Health	Crime	Employment
South Oxfordshire	258	288	287	292
Vale of White Horse	235	284	283	275
West Oxfordshire	233	279	285	263
Cherwell	155	252	231	260
City of Oxford	156	231	123	262

District Council	Education	Health	Crime	Employment
South Oxfordshire	38	8	9	4
Vale of White Horse	61	12	13	21
West Oxfordshire	63	17	11	33
Cherwell	141	44	65	36
City of Oxford	140	65	173	34

However, the ranking for both Cherwell and City of Oxford districts for education, at 141 and 140/296 compare badly with the ranking elsewhere in the county. Overall, the education ranks are still the lowest ranking scores for all districts, except for the City of Oxford, where the ranking for crime is 173/296, over a hundred places lower than any other district in the county.

The comparison between the education rankings and the health rankings raises an interesting question. Why is education doing so badly in Oxfordshire, especially in the urban areas of Oxford and Banbury? It is difficult to blame the local authority, as all but one of the secondary schools and many primary schools are academies and part of MATs.

Perhaps the formula for education funding is so linked to the county’s rank across all indices that the current funding formula for schools cannot compensate for the needs of Oxfordshire children living in its most deprived communities.

It is clear that there are issues nationally with the formula for the High Needs Block that funds SEND, but again does Oxfordshire lose out more than other areas? After all, it schools are generally highly regarded by ofsted; it has two world class universities, and leading science and technology companies driving the economy.

On the SEND issues, one question is whether the NHS is pulling its weight on supporting children with SEND? Assuming that the overall ranking for the county is not going to see any government be more generous to Oxfordshire with regard to funding, however the present county may be configured post local government reorganisation, then there must be a strong case to require the NHS to spend more resources on supporting children with special needs even if its overall ranking slips a few places as a result. This would reduce the need for the county, and the schools within the county, having to prop up spending on SEND that should really come from the health budget.

There is no doubt Oxfordshire is not a county with a high degree of deprivation, but what deprivation there is can be concentrated in a few wards in the urban areas abut also spread out across the rural parts of the county. The former is easy to identify, the latter more of a challenge. Both need more funding for education.

Why ’V’ Levels are important for Labour

Posted on October 20, 2025 by John Howson

Alongside her campaign to become deputy leader of the Labour Party, the Secretary of State for Education has found time today to announce a new post-16 set of qualifications, called ‘V’ Levels, presumably to bring order to the landscape of such qualifications that she sees as confusing.

As I write this blog, the exact details of the new qualification to sit alongside ‘A’ & ‘T’ Levels has not yet been announced to the House of Commons, so we don’t yet know about the nature and format of ‘V’ Levels in detail.

However, as the following table shows, they may be important to many Labour Party members fighting non-metropolitan seats in the north of England, The Midlands and the South West region.

Region	Number of pupils completing key stage 4	Sustained education, employment & apprenticeships	Sustained education destination	Sustained apprenticeships	Sustained employment destination
North East	26,931	91.5	81.7	4.6	5.2
South West	53,111	93.9	84.1	4.7	5.0
Yorkshire and The Humber	58,918	92.0	82.8	4.3	4.9
North West	79,550	92.1	83.3	4.1	4.7
East Midlands	50,002	92.6	84.2	4.2	4.2
East of England	64,445	94.2	87.4	2.7	4.1
West Midlands	64,565	92.4	85.2	3.2	4.0
South East	90,649	94.3	87.7	2.6	4.0
London	84,427	94.6	92.0	0.9	1.7
Outer London	55,921	94.8	92.0	1.0	1.7
Inner London	28,506	94.1	91.9	0.6	1.5

The data is for 2023 and was published last week by the DfE as Destinations of key stage 4 and 5 students: 2024 – GOV.UK although it doesn’t seem to contain the 2024 data yet.

London students, and especially those in inner London Key Stage providers seem overwhelmingly to remain in a sustained education institution, albeit not necessarily the institution where they undertook their Key Stage 4 courses. Less than 1% of inner London students proceeded to a sustained apprenticeship. Obviously, there is more room for such apprenticeships to be offered to these pupils. By contrast, the further away from London the region, the more likely that over 4% of students will proceed to apprenticeships.

The pattern for employment, not regarded by previous government as a key option after the raising unofficially of the learning leaving age to eighteen, mirrors that of apprenticeships, with higher rates the further away from London students are located. Indeed, London is something of an outlier in respect of employment rates for this group, following the pattern expected after the raising f the school leaving age.

Missing for the table are the NEETS – those not in any category in the table. Will ‘V’ Level qualifications help reduce this number, and might it help if such qualifications started at 14, the age when many NEETS fall out of interest in schooling? I was going to write, ‘fall out of love’, but many, I suspect, were never actually in love with schooling.

Anyway, I will be interesting to see whether the announcement helps the Secretary of State’s own election campaign and, if so, whether she will be in place to take the initiative forward?

Funding SEND – is the current system fair?

Posted on October 17, 2025 by John Howson

The DfE has just published data that sets the context for the expected White Paper, due this autumn. Looking at the data on the High Needs Block that has been the basic building block for the funding of SEND (special needs and disabilities), I can see why there must have been some very intense discussions between the DfE and the Treasury. Section 251: 2025 to 2026 – GOV.UK

The data on individual special school funding only refers to maintained schools where local authorities are responsible for oversight of the budgets. It would be really helpful to see similar ‘cost per place’ data for academy special schools and alternative provision, including Pupil Referral Units, even though they have a different financial year to maintained schools.

The data for the municipal financial year of 2025-26 for Oxfordshire was set while I was still the cabinet member for Children’s Services, including maintained schools. The data on funding per place for the three maintained special schools in Oxfordshire is illuminating. There is a total of 522 such schools in England listed in the data. The most expensive costs £8.2 million per place, and judging by its website does a great job educating some very challenged young people from the start of their education journey to adulthood.

Now special schools come in many different forms with clearly different funding needs. A school for pupils with hearing loss and no other disability might need less funding per place than a school for non-verbal young people with physical disabilities in addition

The three Oxfordshire maintained schools were placed 74^th, 155^th and 170^th in the list of 522 schools, with funding per place ranging from £840,000 to £1,2 million. Schools with £2,000,000 per place of more were ranked 373 of higher in the list. Does this mean that Oxfordshire is efficient or under-funded compared with some other local areas? I do wonder.

Even allowing for issues such as higher salary costs in London and surrounding areas, the range of cost per place for similar types of school seems worth looking into more closely, and that is where the academy special schools’ data would be useful in order to allow full consideration of cost per place by local government areas.

The current High Needs block distribution formula clearly isn’t working, and I wonder whether equity of funding is an issue for the team putting together the White Paper? How does anyone judge what is fair in funding levels? Wiser heads than mine will know the answer to that question.

Of course, the other key funding issue for SEND, especially outside of the urban areas, is the cost of transport. The Section 251 budget statement for planned expenditure during 2025-26 by Oxfordshire at Line 175092 of the DfE’s spreadsheet suggests expected spending on SEND transport, including for post-16 students of around f£26.4 million. This compares with expected home to school transport costs of just under £21 million for all other pupils entitled to fee transport.

How will the White Paper deal with this cost? Hopefully, it will recognise that such costs should be met by government up to age 18 or even 19 for all such pupils, and not be discretionary beyond age 16. Could a government funded driver scheme for unemployed adults with a driving licence remove the profit element from such expenditure or would the administration costs be more than the saving made by not using private sector firms?

These are not easy issues to grapple with, but starting with some values about the needs of children with SEND would be a good basis for the outcomes in the White Paper. However, as my earlier analysis of Pupil Teacher Ratios demonstrated, funding and values are not common cause in government spending, regardless of the political persuasion of the government in power. Oxford Teacher Services -publications

I don’t want knife arches in schools

Posted on October 9, 2025 by John Howson

The BBC has conducted a survey of knife crime in schools, using Freedom of Information data from police forces. Children as young as four taking knives into school, BBC finds – BBC News

As regular readers of the blog know, this is a topic of personal interest to me because of what I experienced as a teacher nearly 50 years ago. Knife crime: do we need mandatory sentences? | John Howson

I am sorry for the mother whose son was stabbed to death in school by another pupil, that death, as any death anywhere, is a matter of shame on society.

However, I think that the general secretary of ASCL quoted in the BBC piece has it about right.

‘The Association of Schools and College Leaders says while it is relatively rare for pupils to bring knives into schools, it would like to see greater efforts across society to tackle the issue.

“More than a decade of cuts to community policing and youth outreach programmes has meant school leaders, too often, find themselves with little or no support,” says general secretary, Pepe Di’lasio.’

Cuts to youth services and too many images of knives in entertainment don’t help, as does a lack of teachers serving in high-risk schools long enough to build relationships with pupils.

It is interesting that the academy trust mentioned by the BBC as introducing metal detection arches is located in the West Midlands. The police in that area, according to the BBC, report much higher levels of knife crime incidents in education establishment than other police forces, so perhaps for now some form of detection is acceptable.

However, I would not want detection arches to become a permanent feature or school life. At some point society has to defuse such situations. Schools should not become like airports, after all rail and underground stations function without metal detectors, but not without incidents.

There needs to be a risk assessment, and the issue needs to be kept in proportion. In 2024, the BBC data showed an incidence of 21 knife offence in schools per 1,000,000 students. If there are 6 million students that’s 126 offences per year. I think that the expenditure on knife detecting arches could be better spent elsewhere, and such arches won’t protect students on school buses before they reach the school.

For those children below the age of criminal responsibility, any child with a knife is a matter for Children’s Services, and for parents to explain how their child could leave home with a knife.

Finally, I would ban knives and swords from shop window displays. Such display glorifies weapons, and have no place on our high streets.

For those that want to know more about young people and knife crime this presentation by the youth Justice board from August 2025 is a useful introduction. Knife Crime, Key Evidence and Insights, Aug 2025

According to the government, in the year ending March 2024, there were just over 3,200 knife or offensive weapon offences committed by children resulting in a caution or sentence, which is 6% fewer than the previous year but 20% greater than 10 years ago. This is the sixth consecutive year-on-year decrease.

In the latest year, the vast majority (99.7%) of knife or offensive weapon offences committed by children were possession offences and the remaining 0.1% were threatening with a knife or offensive weapon offences.

In the year ending March 2024, 61% of disposals given to children for a knife or offensive weapon offence were a community sentence. This proportion is broadly stable over the last 10 years.

The proportion of children sentenced to immediate custody was 7% in the last year, which is the same level it has been for the last three years. Youth Justice Statistics: 2023 to 2024 – GOV.UK

Is Labour making mistakes on ITT bursaries?

Posted on October 7, 2025 by John Howson

Yesterday, the government announced the bursaries for trainee graduate teachers and support for school training through the Post Graduate Apprenticeship route (PGTA). As might be expected, the subjects covered by these inducements to train as a teacher are mostly STEM subjects, plus some other subjects, but not the arts and humanities subjects, except for geography for some reason.

Subject	Bursary	Scholarship
Biology	£5,000
Chemistry	£29,000	£31,000
Computing	£29,000	£31,000
Design and technology	£20,000
Geography	£5,000
Languages	£20,000	£22,000
(French, German and Spanish only)
Languages	£20,000
(all other languages, including ancient languages)
Maths	£29,000
Physics	£29,000	£31,000

Teacher training bursaries | Get Into Teaching GOV.UK

The bursaries are paid for by the government, and the scholarships mostly by the subject associations. While I can understand the government’s desire to increase training numbers up to target in these subjects, the list does raise two important questions about what seems like a continuation of the policy of the previous Conservative government.

Firstly, are these now the subjects where targets will not be met in 2025 when the ITT census is published in December. If there are other subjects not likely to meet their ITT target, why are they not included in the list?

I produced this table for an earlier blog, but it is worth repeating here.

Subject	Target2025/26	% increase Sept on June	accepted Sept 25	over/under target
Total Secondary	19,270	26%	16843	-2,427
Primary	7,650	34%	9880	2,230
Chemistry	730	49%	909	179
Biology	985	36%	1397	412
Mathematics	2,300	35%	2617	317
Design & Technology	965	33%	678	-287
Art & Design	680	33%	902	222
Geography	935	33%	981	46
Classics	60	32%	42	-18
English	1,950	31%	1760	-190
Drama	620	30%	273	-347
Business Studies	900	29%	235	-665
Music	565	28%	343	-222
Religious Education	780	28%	418	-362
Others	2,520	25%	360	-2,160
History	790	23%	936	146
Modern Languages	1,460	21%	1428	-32
Physics	1,410	19%	1313	-97
Physical Education	725	17%	1491	766
Computing	895	5%	761	-134

Why are subjects such business studies – a perennial ITT target failure – and music and religious education not included in the bursary list? Does a Labour government not believe these subjects are worth supporting?

The second issue is around whether there will be the jobs available for trainees recruited into training in September 2026, and entering the labour market in September 2027, if on a traditional course. The more the PGTA route is funded, the fewer advertised vacancies there may be if the schools convert PGTA trainees into qualified teachers doing the same job.

The government announcement contains no discussion about the labour market for teachers, and whether ITT trainees, faced with a secondary sector where pupil numbers will be at best flat, and at worst in decline, if the decline in the birthrate together with government policies on immigration or even the threat of them help to reduce the secondary school population.

From my perspective, this announcement like a sloppy piece of work by the DfE, in what could be a rapidly changing labour market, if the intention is to ensure all subjects receive sufficient new entrants into the labour market in 2026.

However, if there is a rapid decline in graduate level entry posts as a result of AI, then the government’s stance may be vindicated, even if says nothing about equality of opportunity.

Are men returning to teaching as a career?

Posted on October 4, 2025 by John Howson

Further delving into the DfE research into school leadership brough to light two more interesting facts. The first is the fact that Headteachers in the secondary sector are more likely to have a Level 7 qualification than head teachers in the primary sector. 76.8% of secondary heads have a Level 7 qualification compared with 41.6% of headteachers in the primary sector.

This difference should not surprise anyone with a sense of history, as many primary headteachers trained when the undergraduate route into primary teaching was still almost as common as the post graduate route. What is more surprising is that the PGCE is classified as a Level 7 qualification. In terms of level of content, I would assume it was actually a Level 6 qualification.

In reality, with more school-based trainees, including those that completed the Teach First route, this will not be a very useful statistic in the future.

The other nugget in the data doesn’t concern leadership statistics, but men in primary classrooms. In order to account for the data on leadership, many of the tables also contain information about classroom teachers and middle and senior leaders not headteachers.

The percentage of classroom teachers in the primary school sector that are male was on the increase between 2010 and 2020, whereas in secondary schools the percentage has continued to decline.

Year	% Male classroom teacher in primary sector	Total classroom teachers
2010	11,3%	130,800
2016	13.9%	142,800
2020	14.0%	144,900

Year	% Male classroom teacher in secondary sector	Total classroom teachers
2010	35.7%	117.100
2016	34.3%	103,900
2020	33.8%	106,000

Data from pages 26,27 and 73 School leadership in England 2010 to 2020: characteristics and trends

Because male teachers are less likely to have a break in service than female teachers, even with maternity leave of one year, there are still higher percentages of males as headteacher in the primary sector than the percentage of male classroom teachers. However, the percentage of male headteachers has been declining, from 29% of primary sector heads in 2010 to 26.2% in 2020.

In the secondary sector, the percentage of male headteachers declined from 62.1% in 2010 to 59.9% in 2020, suggesting that the glass ceiling is still proving difficult to breakthrough after an initial growth in the percentage of female head teachers during the first decade of the century.

Looking back in history, in both 1989 and 1996 male applicants accounted for 36% of PGCE applicants in both years. This was down from 43% of applicants recorded in 1983. In 1995 men accounted for just 16.1% of applicants to primary PGCE courses (Source Howson, Education Review, Summer 1996, Volume 10 Number 1 pp 36-40)

According to the latest DfE data for applications to postgraduate ITT training in the 2024-25 round, released in September 2025, male candidates made up 44% of all applicants, up from 39% the previous year. However, the DfE do not release gender data for either sectors or subjects, as was the case with the GTTR data. Nevertheless, the 2024-25 percentage of 44% male applicants is very similar to the 43% recorded in 1983.

It would be interesting to know whether male candidates receive offers at the same rate as female candidates, especially if only candidates domiciled in England are considered. However, that data isn’t in the monthly releases from the DfE.

Perhaps the low point in male interest in primary school teaching has been reached, but with training numbers on the decline, the balance between applications and offers does need to be monitored, and preferably shared with the sector to ensure discussion about any future trends.

OECD’s review of education: 2024

Posted on September 29, 2025 by John Howson

OECD’s latest Education Indicators at a Glance 2024 has recently been published Education at a Glance 2024 | OECD Within the publication is an interesting section of teachers and teacher shortages.

Compared with most countries where data are analysed in the study, the United Kingdom has a better-balanced age profile for its teaching force. With primary teachers under 30 at 20% of the workforce, compared with the OECD average of 12%, the UK doesn’t quite top the list. Luxembourg has 27% of primary teachers below the age of 30. But the UK is in the top 5% of countries.

As a result of the high percentage of younger teachers in the United Kingdom there is a relatively smaller proportions of teachers under the age of 50. In the primary sector it is 16%, compared with 34% across the OECD. For the lower secondary sector, the UK percentage is 19% compared with 36% for the OECD average. As a result, the United Kingdom faces less of an issue with regard to teacher retirements over the next decade than in many other countries. However, there is a need to ensure that younger teachers do not leave the profession as that would nullify the gain on lower retirement numbers.

Teachers in the United Kingdon have some of the worst pupil teacher ratios in the OECD, and certainly in Western Europe, within the school sector. The data in the OECD book supports my blog posts at various times in recent years, such as: Worst Secondary PTRs for a decade | John Howson and by my longitudinal study of changes in PTRs over the past 50 years available through Oxford Teacher Services

Another interesting feature of the OECD tables about teachers and teaching is the gap between classroom teachers’ pay and that of school leaders. This seems larger in the United Kingdom than in many other OECD countries – perhaps that’s why there are still so many older teachers in service if they are being well paid compared with younger classroom teachers.

Although this blog has concentrated on some of the OECD’s data about teachers, the key sections of Education Indicators at a Glance this year are around equity and the levels of education studies by different groups within societies across the OECD landscape.

One of the key messages from the book’s editorial is that

‘High quality education systems, with fair access for children from all social and economic backgrounds, can be a means to lift people out of poverty and empower students to reach their full potential.

There has been good progress in educational attainment and outcomes, for example, with a significant drop in the share of 25–34 year-olds without an upper secondary qualification, which has decreased from 17% in 2016 to 14% in 2023, in many countries.

However, challenges remain in achieving equality of opportunity. The 2024 edition of Education at a Glance, with a spotlight on equity in education, finds that family background, for example, remains a strong influence on education outcomes.

Fewer than 1 in 5 adults, whose parents did not complete upper secondary education, have university degrees or another form of tertiary qualification. And children from low-income families are, on average in countries with available data1, 18 percentage points less likely to be enrolled in early childhood education and care before the age of 3.’ Page 8

This is an important set of messages in the week of the Labour party Conference.

John Howson

Education and the numbers that affect what happens

Tag Archives: politics