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More than 600,000 pupils in England are being taught by unqualified teachers, new figures show.

The number of untrained teachers has soared by 62% since the last Government relaxed the rules.

Since 2012 heads no longer have to consider a qualified teacher first when appointing members of staff.

Department for Education figures show the number of unqualified staff has risen from 14,800 in 2012 to 24,000 in 2016.

Based on the average class size of 25.5 pupils this means 613,000 pupils are now being taught by unqualified staff.

Schools have had to turn to unqualified teachers as staff leave the profession because of cuts and low pay.

(Image: SWNS.com)

Recent figures show that of the 117,000 teachers who trained between 2011 and 2015, 27,500 have quit the profession.

The House of Commons Education Select Committee has warned that pressures on budgets will lead to more unqualified teachers and larger class sizes.

“To reduce staff costs, schools are likely to increase teachers’ contact time and class sizes, rely more on unqualified staff and staff teaching outside of their specialism, and require head teachers and other senior staff to do more teaching,” the committee said.

Shadow Schools Minister Mike Kane MP said:“The Government have completely failed in their most basic of tasks and are clearly relying on unqualified teachers to plug the gaps.

(Image: Getty)

“Unqualified teachers have no guaranteed training in safeguarding children, controlling a class or adapting teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils. But under the Tories, they’re responsible for the education of hundreds of thousands of our children.

“Under Labour all permanently employed teachers had to be qualified. This Government changed the rules and scrapped that requirement, allowing schools to employ unqualified teachers, permanently threatening standards.

“There is nothing more important to a good education than excellent teaching. The Tories’ failure on teacher recruitment is putting school standards at risk and it’s our children who will pay for their mess.”