Shortage of English teachers predicted

A shortage of secondary English teachers could be on the horizon, a senior educationist has warned.

Barbara MacGilchrist, dean of initial teacher education at the Institute of Education, has had difficulty finding placements for postgraduate certificate in education English trainees in London, which suggests that schools are experiencing shortages and a high turnover of trained teachers.

Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service show that numbers of trainees in PGCE secondary English fell more than 9 per cent between 1997 and 1999.

While the latest figures on PGCE applicants, out this week, show a 10.1 per cent rise across the board between 2000 and 2001, applications for English dropped by 0.4 per cent.