Responding to the NFER’s School Teacher Labour Market Annual Report, which says the government's suggested 6.5% pay increase over three years risks damaging the competitiveness of teacher pay and reversing some of the progress made in improving recruitment, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“This report should serve as a stark reminder to government that the teacher pay problem is far from solved.

"You can’t have world class teachers and leaders on the cheap. The exploitation of professionals’ commitment to children and their vocation has to end. 

“The recruitment and retention problem facing schools is well established and very early signs of improvement should not be misread. 

“Only by restoring pay, modernising conditions, rebalancing workload, and reducing the stress of the job, will we solve this crisis."

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The government cut targets for recruitment to both primary and secondary teacher training by around a fifth for 2025/26.

Other recent figures showed nearly as many teachers are leaving the profession as are starting out in it. There have been sustained falls in the number of teachers aged under 25 and 25-29.