The prime minister’s ambition to ensure that all pupils study maths up to the age of 18, first outlined in January and reiterated in a speech on Monday, has attracted a variety of responses ranging from “laudable” to “shortsighted” and “misguided”.
There is a consensus, however, that the key obstacle is the critical shortage of specialist maths teachers – among other subject specialists – which already threatens to undermine maths education in schools in England.
As things stand, about one in eight maths lessons (12%) are taught by someone without a maths degree and almost half of all secondary schools are having to use non-specialist teachers for maths.
It could be a geography teacher, a PE teacher or someone from the modern foreign languages department filling the gaps in your child’s maths timetable. Maths supply teachers to provide specialist cover are notoriously difficult to find.
The shortage in maths teachers is partly due to the fact that the government has failed to meet its own recruitment targets for trainee maths teachers every year for more than a decade, despite the target being cut by 39%. It is also because of the high attrition rate among maths teachers, who leave to do other – often better paid – jobs.
While the recruitment and retention of teachers is a huge issue across many subjects and most schools, maths is particularly affected. According to Jack Worth, an education economist and school workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research, in 2020 13% of maths teachers quit the classroom within their first five years, compared with an average of 9.3% across all subjects.
Worth says one of the key challenges to any expansion of maths education is the sheer number of maths teachers already required in schools in England, where it is a compulsory part of the curriculum up to the age of 16. The other issue is the relative attractiveness of teaching to someone with a maths degree, who has the potential to earn a premium salary in banking or industry.
“If you’ve got a maths degree, or an economics degree, or something quantitative, then your skills are quite in demand in the labour market,” said Worth. “So maths graduates and quantitative graduates tend to earn quite well in terms of starting salaries and career progression, which means that relative to what you could earn outside of teaching, teaching is less attractive.”
So, improved pay is a key issue in any attempt to boost recruitment of maths teachers. As parents will be aware, teacher pay is at the centre of a bitter, ongoing dispute between the government and unions. Strike action by the National Education Union has already closed thousands of schools and further industrial action is planned for later this month and next.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, experienced teachers – including maths teachers – had a 13% real-terms drop in pay between 2010 and 2022, while average earnings across the economy have gone up 2% in real terms over the same period. Unions have rejected a government offer of a £1,000 one-off payment and a 4.5% pay rise next year. There are no talks planned and there is no resolution in sight.
There are some financial incentives already in place to try to attract subject teachers who are in short supply. The government says bursaries and scholarships worth up to £27,000 and £29,000 tax-free are helping to encourage talented trainees to subjects such as maths, physics, chemistry and computing. Early-career payments are also available in some areas, but given the shortages, the government offer does not appear to be substantial enough.
The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, has also floated the idea of higher pay for teachers in subjects where there are acute shortages. Could that work? “The economist in me says it’s a good idea because you’ve got supply and demand and there isn’t enough supply of maths teachers and demand is outstripping it,” says Worth. “So you’d want to put your resources where they’re likely to be most effective and where they’re most needed.
“I guess the challenge comes at the school level. Schools don’t want multiple pay scales and complicated pay systems. And they worry about things like fairness and teachers feeling they’re valued across all different subjects.”
And then there are working conditions, which have changed in many industries and sectors post-pandemic, with a mixture of time in the office and working from home. There is not the same flexibility available in teaching, which may also act as a deterrent.
