Trainee maths and science teachers ‘lack good degrees’

Many trainee maths and science teachers do not have good degrees in their subject, a study has claimed which warns they would be unable to inspire pupils in the classroom.

While nine in 10 classics trainees and almost four-fifths of would-be history teachers have a first or 2:1 university degree, this falls to around half for maths and science trainees (51 per cent and 54.6 per cent respectively).

Those training to be foreign language teachers are also less likely to have a “good” degree, with more than a third (37.2 per cent) holding a 2:2 or lower, the Good Teacher Training Guide 2011 found.

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Researchers at Buckingham University’s Centre for Education and Employment Research conclude there is a clear link between lower qualifications, low course completion rates and the numbers entering teaching.

Four-fifths of English and history trainee secondary school teachers (80.2 per cent and 79 per cent respectively) entered teaching after completing their course, but this fell to 70 per cent for maths, 68.9 per cent for science and 66.1 per cent for modern foreign languages, all of which are subjects where the numbers with “good” degrees are lower.

Report author Prof Alan Smithers said: “Training departments are able to choose more carefully who they recruit, but if there are not enough people studying science and maths, the training departments really struggle to recruit and bring in people who don’t want to be teachers and are not as well qualified.”

This also has an impact on the enthusiasm of pupils, who are then less likely to take up subjects like science and maths, Prof Smithers said.