The seriousness of the maths teacher recruitment crisis has been underlined by a new survey showing that only 1 per cent of maths A-level students are interested in teaching the subject in secondary schools.

Only 10 out of 814 maths students in the north-east of England said they were considering following in their maths teachers’ footsteps.

In 34 of the 45 schools surveyed in North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Northumberland, not a single upper-sixth maths student was interested in taking an undergraduate course in maths teaching. And very few added that they would consider doing a PGCE.

The shortage of well-qualified maths teachers is now so severe that the profession needs to recruit 50 per cent of all this year’s maths graduates in order to catch up.

The Government intends to offer a pound;5,000 golden hello to trainee maths teachers from this October - half will be paid at the start of their PGCE course, the remainder when they take up their first teaching job.

It was forced to offer the bursary because even prestigious institutions such as Oxford University’s department of educational studies were unable to attract enough maths specialists last year.

But the author of the new survey report, Roy Kennard, maths adviser for Sunderland, doubts whether such payments are the answer.

Mr Kennard, who was a principal lecturer at Sunderland University when he conducted the survey last September, said “low pay” was the most common reason for rejecting a teaching career. Heavy workloads, difficult pupils and stress were other significant deterrents.

There was also some evidence that those who knew most about the profession - the children of teachers - were particularly loath to consider it. “Five schools indicated that pupils were particularly negative if their parents were teachers,” Mr Kennard said.

“Perhaps we all need to stress the positive side of teaching a lot more.”

John Howson, an education consultant who monitors teacher recruitment, said the Government was unlikely to attract enough maths specialists this autumn. But he added that bursaries did appear to be easing the problem.

“As of this week there were 647 applications for maths places on PGCE courses starting this autumn compared with 553 at the same time last year,” he said. “However, you have to bear in mind that only 1,120 of the 2,270 maths places on PGCE and undergraduate courses were filled last year in England and Wales.

“This year the target is 2,130 - including 300 places available to mature entrants who will be trained in schools. But unless something dramatic happens we are not going to hit the target this year because we are already half-way through the recruitment cycle.”

But minister...

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