In its first statistical release of ITT places for the 2015-16 academic year, the National College for Teaching and Leadership has allocated 22,244 places to higher education institutions, down from 23,095 for the 2014-15 academic year.

In contrast, School Direct ¨C where places are allocated to schools to employ trainees ¨C has seen its allocation rise from 15,254 to 17,609.

It means that universities¡¯ share of a total 43,516 ITT allocations has reduced by just over 5 per cent, while School Direct¡¯s has risen by more than 3 per cent. Higher education institutions have seen a 3.7 per cent reduction in places while School Direct has seen an increase in allocations of over 15 per cent.

¡°An increase in School Direct numbers makes little sense when [the National College for Teaching and Leadership] has acknowledged that schools do not fill their places or recruit trainee teachers as well as universities,¡± said Pam Tatlow, chief executive of the university thinktank Million+.

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¡°It seems that yet again ideology has got in the way of common sense and that the get-out-of-jail card is the allocation of more ITT places than are required.

¡°This is hardly a robust approach to the serious business of ensuring that schools and students have the high-quality teachers that they will require in the future.¡±

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James Noble-Rogers, executive director of the Universities¡¯ Council for the Education of Teachers, said the higher education sector ¡°overall can work with these allocations¡±, despite the necessity to ¡°look carefully¡± at the impact on individual institutions and regions.

¡°Universities have long been calling for greater school involvement in, and ownership of, initial teacher education and are supportive of the philosophy of schools-focussed training,¡± Mr Noble-Rogers said.

¡°It should however be recognised that programmes delivered using core places allocated to HEIs can be at least as schools-led as those allocated via SCITTs or School Direct.

¡°Care must be taken to retain the infrastructure we need to supply some 40,000 new teachers to schools, and to give schools a choice about which forms of teacher education they participate in.¡±

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john.elmes@tesglobal.com