On Wednesday (25 March) Members of the Senedd will debate the Children, Young People and Education (CYPE) Committee’s report on Teacher recruitment and retention. We set out some relevant background below.
- As discussed in a previous article and recently reported by the CYPE Committee, there are considerable concerns about both the recruitment and retention of teachers – particularly in certain subjects in secondary schools and among teachers able to teach through Welsh. The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle MS, has acknowledged this in the Welsh Government’s recently published Strategic Education Workforce Plan.
- The overall number of students training to become secondary school teachers has missed the intake target for many years. In 2023/24, 505 students enrolled onto secondary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses, which is less than half (44%) of the target.
- There are particular challenges in some subjects such as chemistry and physics which each had only 10 entrants against a target of 67 in 2023/24, maths which had only 45 against a target of 136, and modern foreign languages which had 25 against a target of 69.
- There are also particular shortages in teachers able to teach Welsh as a subject (30 training against a target of 87) and those training to teach through the medium of Welsh (which the Welsh Governments expects to be 30%). In 2023/24, this was 20% at secondary school level and 23% at primary school. A shortage of teachers through the medium of Welsh was highlighted as a potential barrier to successful implementation of the Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Act 2025.
- Retention is also a concern, particularly the number of teachers leaving the profession within the first five years. NEU Cymru said this has “increased significantly” with a quarter leaving within this time, while Estyn highlighted that the highest numbers in secondary schools are among those teaching shortage subjects of English, maths, science and Welsh second language.
- Other issues covered in the CYPE Committee’s report, include progression into school leadership roles, workforce diversity, impact on learners and delivering educational reforms, and the wider education workforce including support staff. On the latter, the Welsh Government has said it is committed to establish a School Support Staff Negotiating Body and “preparatory work on primary legislation has already started”.
- In total, the CYPE Committee made 16 recommendations, with the Welsh Government accepting all of them. Key to many of the Cabinet Secretary’s responses is the Strategic Education Workforce Plan, subsequently published on 18 March.
Article by Michael Dauncey, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament
