Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Minister, commenting on reports that the Government’s has abandoned its National Teaching Services scheme after it recruited just 54 teachers, said:

“This announcement joins a series of failures on teacher training from the Tories.

“Following today’s damning Ofsted report criticising the government’s record on teacher recruitment and retention, we now learn that they’ve are scrapping the much lauded National Teaching Service after just a year.

“Last week we learnt that the Tories have missed their recruitment target for the fifth year in row. And last year the highest number of teachers left the profession in a decade.

“The chronic teacher shortage continues to threaten standards under the Tories, and they are completely failing to take this crisis seriously.”