Thu, 29 Oct 2015 The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has confirmed it has received 25 complaints about a teacher recruitment advertisement since it was launched by the government on Tuesday.

The advert, which appears online and on prime-time television, aims to get more people to consider teaching as a career. 

However, it has been slammed by some in the industry, including Martin Powell-Davies, an executive member of the National Union of Teachers, who says the £65k salary it mentions is misleading. 

In a blog post, he says the advert is “deliberately misleading” and, while the salary may technically be available, it is rare.

The Department for Education’s (DfE) own statistics for state-owned schools show only 2% of teachers earn more than £50k.

An ASA spokesperson this morning told Recruiter 25 complaints had been made in relation to the advert and it was assessing them to establish whether an investigation was needed.

The DfE defended the campaign.

A spokesperson told Recruiter: “Teachers have the potential to earn up to £65,000 and hundreds do – that excludes those in leadership roles who can earn more.

“Teachers have the potential to earn up to £65,978 on the leading practitioner pay range for 2015.”

The DfE statistics show just 0.6% of teachers were in that pay range last year.