Lucy Powell MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Schools, commenting on the Association of School and College Leaders report showing schools are sharing staff to cover lessons because of the teacher recruitment and retention crisis, said:

“Ministers continue to ignore the teacher recruitment and retention crisis of their making at their peril. Time and again they disregard the evidence and fail to acknowledge or tackle the problem.

“This report shows that schools are sharing teachers to cover lessons, three quarters of heads are putting teachers without relevant subject training in front of a class to plug gaps and four fifths of school leaders say teacher shortages are having a detrimental effect on the education they are providing.

“Rather than continue to bury their heads in the sand this Tory Government must take urgent action before standards in our schools further suffer.”