LOW pay, excessive workloads and needless bureaucracy are to blame for a huge yearly drop in teacher training recruits, the National Education Union (NEU) warned today.

The number of teacher training applications shot down by a third from 19,330 in December 2016 to 12,820 in 2017, according to Ucas figures.

This includes around 25 per cent fewer trainees in English, maths and science.