MILLIONS of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being wasted on teacher training bursaries for trainees who did not go on to teach in state schools, Labour revealed yesterday.

Around £6 million was spent on bursaries worth at least £25,000 for students who did not go on to teach once qualified, according to analysis of Department for Education data.

Another £7m was spent on those who did not go on to teach but got bursaries between £20,000 and £24,999.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner accused the government of failing to meet its teacher training targets for the sixth consecutive year, with teachers leaving the profession at the highest rate since records began.

“The government’s strategy to deal with the teacher recruitment and retention crisis they have created is failing badly, and it is taxpayers who are paying the price for the failures of Tory ministers,” she said.

The research comes as a Education Policy Institute (EPI) report published today finds that almost a third of local authority maintained secondary schools are in deficit.

School funding remains a major issue in 2019, the report concludes, with 30.3 per cent of local authority maintained secondary schools in England in deficit in 2017/18 — up from 8.1 per cent in 2014.

Jon Andrews, report author and deputy head of research at EPI said: “These statistics highlight again the financial pressure that schools in England are under, particularly at secondary level.”

The National Education Union’s joint general secretary Kevin Courtney called the report “predictable” and “a direct consequence of the government’s refusal to adequately fund the education system.

“Cost pressures in the education system and the increase in secondary school pupil numbers mean more secondary schools will face a deficit in future years.”