The number of entrants to primary school teacher training in England has fallen, Government figures show.

Department for Education (DfE) data shows the Government achieved just 88% of its postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) recruitment target for primary schools in 2024/25, down from 94% last year.

The primary target has increased from 9,180 to 9,400 in the past year, while the number of entrants decreased from 8,633 to 8,258, the figures show.

The Labour Government made a good start with this year’s pay award but that must be followed up with more action

Education experts have warned that Labour’s manifesto pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers may be difficult to achieve unless more action is taken.

For secondary school subjects, 62% of the Government’s target was reached for 2024/25, up from 48% in 2023/24.

The Government only met its secondary teacher recruitment targets in five out of 17 subjects: classics, biology, English, history and physical education.

Overall, the percentage of the ITT target achieved for all subjects – secondary and primary – was 69% in 2023/24, compared with 60% last year.

There were 27,746 new entrants to ITT this year, up by 5% from 26,342 in 2023/24, but the number of entrants remains “below pre-pandemic levels”, according to the DfE.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “It is of great concern that recruitment in primary subjects has worsened since last year.

“The problems in recruiting trainee teachers clearly continue to be grave but this is only one of the issues behind teacher shortages across the country.

Without a comprehensive and funded strategy, the Government is highly unlikely to meet its pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers

“The Labour Government made a good start with this year’s pay award but that must be followed up with more action.

“It will be extremely difficult for it to achieve its aim of recruiting 6,500 new teachers if we cannot even meet current recruitment targets.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “These concerning figures lay bare the scale of the challenge facing the Government if it is to achieve its welcome target of recruiting 6,500 new teachers.

“There is a modest improvement in secondary teacher training, but against a dismal background, and a worsening crisis in entrants to teacher training at primary schools.”

The annual recruitment target for secondary school teachers has only been met once since 2012/13, in the pandemic year of 2020/21.

The primary recruitment target has been achieved in five of the past nine years.

Jack Worth, school workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), said: “Today’s Government statistics show vast under-recruitment to teacher training in a wide range of subjects for a third straight year since the pandemic.

On top of the 5.5% pay award, we are resetting the relationship with the education workforce, re-establishing teaching as an attractive, expert profession, and taking steps to support teachers’ wellbeing and ease workload pressures

“Recruitment of secondary teachers is 38% below target with 12 out of 17 subjects falling short.

“The fact that primary teacher recruitment is 12% below target as well highlights the breadth of the overall supply crisis.

“Without a comprehensive and funded strategy, the Government is highly unlikely to meet its pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “We are determined to break down the barriers to opportunity children face, driving high and rising standards across education, and our teachers are integral to that mission.

“Overall, there are more people training to teach this year than last, but we do not underestimate the scale of the challenge ahead and the parlous state of teacher recruitment and retention we have inherited.

“Work is already under way to deliver on our pledge to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers.

“On top of the 5.5% pay award, we are resetting the relationship with the education workforce, re-establishing teaching as an attractive, expert profession, and taking steps to support teachers’ wellbeing and ease workload pressures.”