Up to £123million worth of taxpayers’ cash has been spent training ‘ghost’ teachers who never take up state school posts.

Research shows how more than 11,000 recruits, almost one in ten, who qualified over a five-year period changed their minds about teaching.

They were not working in state schools a year later, despite collectively receiving between £67million and £123million in tax-free bursaries.

The department had previously trailed a scheme giving maths teachers retention payments of £15,000 in high-needs areas, with lower bursaries of £20,000, but this was later scrapped [File photo]

Trainees in sought-after subjects such as physics and chemistry are eligible for bursaries up to £26,000, while primary education graduates can get up to £6,000 if they specialise in maths.

Mary Bousted, of the NEU teaching union, said the figures amounted to a ‘stupendous waste of money’ and showed how teaching was now seen as an ‘unattractive profession’.

Geoff Barton, of the Association of School and College Leaders described the missing teachers as ‘ghost trainees’ and said: ‘Teacher training bursaries are well-intentioned but it is infuriating that there are no conditions attached to them and that trainees can waltz out of the classroom after a short period of time, or not enter it at all, without incurring any financial penalty.’

Up to £123million worth of taxpayers’ cash has been spent training ‘ghost’ teachers who never take up state school posts. Research shows how more than 11,000 recruits, almost one in ten, who qualified over a five-year period changed their minds about teaching [File photo]

He added: ‘It’s pretty galling the amount of money that has been spent on trying to recruit people into the classroom who have never set foot there.’ The reason for the uncertainty over the total spent is that the Department for Education will not release the relevant figures.

However, the Times Educational Supplement has revealed that of 101,060 postgraduate trainees who won Qualified Teacher Status from 2009-10 to 2015-16, 11,460 (11 per cent) had not taught in a state-funded school by November 2017.

They would have accrued £67.4million in bursaries if they all received the lowest amount and £123.6million – 25 per cent of the £484million bursaries bill – if they all received the maximum.

A DfE spokesman said: ‘Bursaries are designed to incentivise more applicants to train in the subjects that are hardest to recruit to. Trainees only receive the bursary in full if they complete the training course.

‘Of final year trainees in 2017-18 ... 79 per cent eligible for a bursary were employed in a state-funded school in England. Others may enter the classroom later in life.’

Last year the department announced that new teachers specialising in chemistry, languages, maths and physics would receive early career payments of up to £9,000, as well as bursaries of £26,000, to boost retention.

However, that covers just four of the 16 subjects for which trainees can claim bursaries.

The department had previously trailed a scheme giving maths teachers retention payments of £15,000 in high-needs areas, with lower bursaries of £20,000, but this was later scrapped.