TEACHING unions say the Government needs to face up to the "haemorrhaging" of staff from the profession.

The Government announced yesterday that applications for teacher training had hit a seven-year high.

But figures released on the same day by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) showed that three in ten recruits in their final year of training never enter the profession.

Terry Buckler, North regions secretary for the NUT, said: "It shows a tremendous haemorrhaging of teaching, which is frightening.

"In primary schools, the principal reason why they leave is workload, and in the secondary schools the biggest thing is behavour and discipline. Interestingly, it is not about salary.

"I think the Government needs to be honest that there is a problem."

But the Government has hailed the latest statistics, saying they show a rise in applications to teach "shortage" subjects, including maths.

John Heslop, regional officer with the National Association of Headteachers said: "Any improvement has got to be applauded, but it doesn't go anywhere near far enough to what is needed.

"I think part of the problem retaining teachers is that they no longer automatically get the respect they once did, and they are finding there is so much emphasis on planning, marking assessing and recording."