Figures showing one in five trainee teachers cannot spell or do simple sums, with one student taking an exam 37 times before they passed, have raised concerns over standards in education training.
An additional one-in-10 fail their final-year literacy and numeracy tests twice in a row, with dozens needing 10 attempts to pass, a newspaper report has revealed.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University said allowing those who had such a diminished grasp of numeracy and literacy into the classroom was "shocking".
The figures, from the Training and Development Agency for Schools, also showed:
- A fifth of trainee teachers fail both numeracy and literacy tests on their first attempt
- 1,508 failed one of the two tests on their fifth attempt
- 57 trainees took 19 exams before they passed
Standards have been on the decline for the past five years; 83.6% of trainees passed numeracy first time and 86.4% passed literacy first time in 2003/4. This is compared to less than 80% in both subjects in the last academic year.
Originally, trainee teachers were allowed up to five attempts to pass but Labour scrapped the rule in 2001 and instead allowed unlimited re-sits, which Smithers compared to driving tests.
"People will be able to fluke the tests, meaning they pass but have no proper understanding of the subject. Three attempts will reduce this possibility but it does not go far enough," he added.
As of next year, the number of attempts will be restricted to two but critics say this may be a case of "too little, too late".
Mother-of-two Fiona Short expressed fears over the trainee teachers who had "slipped through the net".
"Obviously I think the new teacher training standards are a positive step in the right direction but I am worried about the thousands who seem to have been able to constantly re-take exams until they pass," she told the Huffington Post UK.
"You wouldn't get this in any other profession, so why has it been acceptable for so long in a career as important as teaching?"