TEACHERS have criticised the government for failing to recruit enough trainee secondary-school teachers for the seventh year in a row.

Only 85 per cent of the overall target number were signed up this year, according to official Department for Education figures.

The number is disproportionately worse for core subjects, with only 64 per cent of the target being met for trainee maths teachers, 43 per cent for physics and 62 per cent for modern foreign languages.

The Conservatives have announced plans to raise salaries for new teachers to £30,000 by 2022-23, while Labour will return all public-sector workers a 5 per cent pay increase.

Labour shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said: “A Labour government will take action to address the teacher recruitment-and-retention crisis.

“We’ll significantly increase investment in our schools, tackle the causes of high workload and provide ring-fenced funding to give teachers the pay rise they deserve.”

NEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: “The government is still failing to account for historic under-recruitment, and is not doing enough to prevent so many teachers leaving the profession. 

“Unmanageable workload, excessive accountability and restraint on pay have created a teacher recruitment-and-retention crisis entirely of the government’s own making. 

“The current government shows no signs of budging on any of the issues which anger teachers and drive far too many out of the profession. Teachers are an investment and on December 12 we have the opportunity to initiate real and positive change for education.”