£4.3m spent …but just 28 troops retrained as teachers

A SCHEME championed by David Cameron aiming to train armed forces veterans as teachers was branded a flop last night.

Only 28 veterans qualified as teachers under the ‘Troops to Teachers’ programme during the last Parliament, the latest statistics have revealed.

Last night Labour claimed the figure shows the scheme is struggling, and accused the Government of failing to deal with a ‘ crisis’ in teacher recruitment.

The programme, which has cost £4.3million so far, was a 2010 Tory manifesto promise aimed at getting ‘ experienced and high- quality’ ex- service personnel into classrooms. The government scheme launched in June 2013, and the first group of teachers completed their two-year training in December last year. At the time, ministers claimed that retraining veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts would teach pupils self- discipline and teamwork.

And two years ago David Cameron pledged to support the scheme when concerns were raised. He told the House of Commons: ‘We support the programme. It is a good idea and a good proposal, and I want to make sure it is working.’

But figures have revealed that only 28 trainees have completed the programme. Around 100 more are still going through their training – making the cost per qualified teacher around £33,000.

Labour’s education spokesman Lucy Powell said: ‘This is more evidence in a series of failures by the Tory Government to get a hold on the teacher shortage crisis. Despite David Cameron’s personal commitment to the scheme, the Government has only managed to get 28 veterans to qualify as teachers.’

She added: ‘What’s clear is that, as with the Government’s general slow response to teacher shortages, this scheme isn’t working because the Government isn’t focusing on teacher recruitment.

‘We urgently need a proper strategy for teacher recruitment including of veterans for whom this could make a great second career.’

The figures also show that initially, only a small percentage of those who applied for the course were accepted. In the first year there were nearly 300 applications but only 41 trainees started the programme.

The following year 52 were accepted out of nearly 200, and 51 out of 62 in the third year – with application numbers dropping by 80 per cent over the three years.

Recently a National Audit Office report also found the Government has missed its teacher recruitment targets for the last four years.

But a Department for Education spokesman insisted: ‘These figures are an unfair portrayal of a scheme that is giving talented service leavers a chance to inspire young people and use their unique experience.

‘The 28 graduates referred to are the first trainees to be recruited and completed their two-year course at the end of December. Further cohorts are being trained.’

They added: ‘The impact of these recruits in the classroom has been overwhelmingly positive with headteachers praising the influence they’ve had on attainment. And more than three- quarters were immediately employed by the school they trained at.’

‘A series of failures’