A DESPERATE Tory effort to patch up mounting teacher shortages by retraining former squaddies has produced just 28 classroom recruits — at a cost f £154,000 per person, Labour Party researchers revealed today.

The Troops to Teachers scheme, pushed by former education secretary Michael Gove as an exodus of teachers threatened his unpopular academies and free schools drive, was allocated a £10 million budget in January 2014, of which £4.3m has been spent so far.

The figures will cause embarrassment for David Cameron who said the scheme was a “good idea” and promised personally to “make sure it is working.”

NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: “It has long been known that the headline-grabbing rhetoric of Troops to Teachers would not and has not translated into significant numbers entering the profession.

“We face a serious teacher recruitment and retention crisis as a direct result of David Cameron’s muddled thinking and wrong priorities.”

ATL spokeswoman Alison Ryan added: “The government needs to learn that tackling the ever-growing teacher shortage is about making the profession a more attractive one to join, and stay in, rather than weakly supported but expensive gimmicks like ‘Troops to Teachers’.”

Ministers have previously revealed that only 293 people applied for the first phase of the scheme, which was initially announced by Mr Gove in 2011 but took a further three years to be implemented.

And not only have a tiny fraction qualified as teachers, Labour’s figures show applications have since slumped by 80 per cent.

Just 62 people applied to join the latest phase of the scheme.

The figures come just two weeks after the National Audit Office criticised the government for failing to recruit enough teachers for the past four years running.

Shadow education secretary Lucy Powell said: “This is more evidence in a series of failures by the Tory government to get a hold on the teacher shortage crisis.”

The Department for Education defended the scheme, saying more than 100 former troops were currently in training.

Hitting back, a spokesman said: “These figures are completely misleading and an unfair portrayal of a scheme that is giving talented service leavers a chance to inspire young people.”