Shortage of maths teachers in England, admits education secretary
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Version 0 of 1. Education secretary Nicky Morgan has admitted that schools in England are facing a shortage of maths teachers, at the same time as the government has been pushing more pupils to study the subject at school and beyond. Responding to questions from the new Commons education select committee, the minister conceded there were problems with teacher recruitment. “I would not disagree, there are challenges in teacher recruitment,” she said. Morgan said the recovering economy was in part to blame, with students leaving university enjoying greater graduate opportunities in the jobs market. She continued: “There are subjects where we have always struggled to hit our recruitment targets. There are a variety of different subjects. “We need more good maths teachers. This government has placed a huge emphasis on maths in the course of the last parliament.” There have been growing concerns in schools about a crisis in staff recruitment, with maths posts particularly hard to fill. Headteachers with long-term maths vacancies have had to double up classes or use non-maths specialists to deliver lessons. Related: Would you pass a GCSE maths exam? The education secretary told the committee this year’s figures showed that recruitment of secondary teachers in maths, physics, chemistry and English was up on last year. But she admitted: “We do need more. That’s why the prime minister announced a programme in March of attracting more generous bursaries, attracting more maths graduates, but also helping those already working in schools teaching maths to increase their skills and confidence in doing so.” Pressing her on the government’s strategy, Labour committee member Ian Mearns said there were reports of a shortage of 5,000 maths teachers, with particular pressures on further education colleges tasked to deliver GCSE maths resits. He said there were other shortages of teachers in physics, and design and technology. Meanwhile, figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) in July showed that applications to train as a teacher in England were 9% down compared with the previous year. “We do need to see some flesh on the bones in terms of how the [government’s] plan is going to meet those particular needs,” said Mearns. Morgan told the committee maths was now the most popular A-level, which would in turn – she hoped – lead to more maths graduates choosing to teach. “One of the messages we have to get out is that we need great people to be teachers and we need to make it easier for people to get into teaching and to do the training.” |