Former squaddies are being recruited by schools in a desperate attempt to battle the teacher shortage.
It comes as applications to train as teachers have slumped by up to 50% over the last year.
The Schools Week site said: “Schools are offering part-time courses, approaching former soldiers and sponsoring sports teams to promote the profession, as more than three-quarters say trainee teacher applications are down on last year.”
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A poll by the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers showed the cost-of-living crisis was one of the main reasons people were turning away. The Wandsworth Primary Schools’ Consortium in south London would usually have recruited 20 teachers by the start of May and reached its capacity of 30 by June.
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So far it has only six trainees. Course director Sam Stewards said the figure was “the lower end of everyone’s worst nightmare”.
James Noble-Rogers, of the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers, said: “Not enough people are applying. It’s an extremely bad year.”
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