Government increases drama teacher recruitment target

The Department for Education has announced a 50% increase in its secondary drama teacher recruitment target for 2024/25.

The uplift in the government’s postgraduate initial teacher training target comes amid a 9.1% decrease across all subjects.

Updated annually, the DfE’s targets estimate the number of qualified teachers required for each secondary subject as well as general primary teaching.

To meet supply for secondary drama, the government aims to recruit 450 trainee teachers for 2024/25, up from 300 for 2023/24, and 290 for 2022/23.

Queries on the increase 

A number of members of the education sector have publicly questioned if these recruitment target figures have been amended to improve the statistics available to the public. 

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and Colleges Leaders union, said: ‘The decision to reduce the 2024/25 target for secondary postgraduate trainees – whatever the technical explanation – will be regarded with suspicion as it obviously looks like an attempt to make the recruitment figures look better’.

The 2024/25 target for primary postgraduate ITT trainees, meanwhile, increased by 2.4%, despite falling pupil numbers, which the DfE said is ‘principally the result of less favourable retention forecasts this year’.

For drama in 2023/4, the Government recruited 79% of its target, or 280 teachers, although these figures are still significantly down on previous years.

Drama is one of eight subjects to see an increase in its recruitment target for 2024/25, with 10 subjects seeing their targets reduced.

DfE response

Releasing a statement, the DfE said: ‘Targets reflect changes in both supply and demand; different drivers may act upon targets for different subjects. For example, more favourable physics teacher retention forecasts this year have acted to reduce the physics target [down by 20.2%]. By contrast, less favourable drama ITT recruitment has acted to increase this year’s drama target [up by 50%].’