Almost one in 10 teachers at some of England’s largest academy chains are unqualified, new analysis reveals
Local authority schools have lower pupil:teacher ratios than those seen in large academy trusts. Pic: iStock/Getty Images
Almost one in ten teachers working in some of England’s largest multi-academy trusts are unqualified, new analysis by this website of government data reveals today.
Some 9.2 per cent of classroom professionals at the Harris Federation, England’s second-largest chain, lacked qualified teacher status (QTS) in 2023-24, Department for Education workforce data shows.
At Academies Enterprise Trust, the unqualified teacher figure was 8.8 per cent; at Ark Schools it was 7.9 per cent; and at E-Act it was seven per cent, with the average for the 50 largest academy trusts overall running at 4 per cent.
Among England’s top 10 largest academy trusts, the unqualified teacher rate was 5.5 per cent – nearly three times the rate of that within local authority maintained schools, where on average across the primary and secondary sectors the rate was just 1.87 per cent.
The unqualified teacher rate in the largest academy trusts is also substantially higher than that seen in the rest of the academies sector.
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By Warwick Mansell for EDUCATION UNCOVERED
Published: 21 January 2025
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