British schools alert over lack of maths, science and English teachers

SCHOOLS are struggling to find teachers in key subjects such as maths, science and English.

Teacher showing kids her ipadGETTY

Two-thirds of heads are having trouble finding maths teachers

Two-thirds of heads have had difficulty recruiting maths teachers and almost half have had trouble filling English or science posts.

A survey by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) was based on responses after interviews with 777 head teachers.

Some 63.3 per cent said that it was hard to obtain maths teachers, 48.8 per cent had problemsgetting science tutors and 45.4 per cent with teaching lessons in English in the past year.

Many also had a hard time fi lling posts like computer science (23.9 per cent), geography (12.2 per cent), modern languages (17.6 per cent) and technology (13.8 per cent).

ASCL general secretary Brian Lightman said that encouraging new graduates and easy-tonavigate routes into training were the solution.

He added: “We all need to ensure that teachers have a manageable workload and that Ofsted, and other accountability measures, do not lead to unhealthy pressures in the classroom.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “It is untrue to suggest there is going to be a shortage of teachers.

“The teacher vacancy rate has remained low at around one per cent or below since 2000.

“We always allocate more places than are needed to ensure a high quality supply of teachers.”

This month, watchdog Ofsted’s chief Sir Michael Wilshaw warned that not enough new staff were 

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