{"id":75680,"date":"2025-01-28T00:11:40","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T05:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=75680"},"modified":"2025-01-28T00:11:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T05:11:40","slug":"englands-maths-teacher-recruitment-problem-is-set-to-worsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/englands-maths-teacher-recruitment-problem-is-set-to-worsen\/","title":{"rendered":"England\u2019s maths teacher recruitment problem is set to worsen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Everyone should leave school with a solid understanding of maths. Decent mathematics literacy is a hugely important skill in many aspects of life. We need it when budgeting for a weekly shop, asking for a pay rise and completing a tax return.<\/p>\n

An interest and enjoyment in maths fostered at school can lead people to study the subject further. Mathematics graduates go on to professions in government, industry, software development and financial analytics, as well as many genres of engineering.<\/p>\n

In total,\u00a013% of all employment in the UK<\/a>\u00a0is in professions that depend on mathematical sciences. A workforce that has been well taught in maths is crucial to a society\u2019s prosperity.<\/p>\n

Building a workforce skilled in mathematics in England, however, will be difficult when there are not enough people qualified to teach the subject at school. Mathematics is a technical discipline. Quality teaching relies on its educators to have specific training: a university degree in maths.<\/p>\n

Research published<\/a>\u00a0in 2019 in Australia found that secondary school students achieved noticeably higher results when they were taught maths by teachers with a university degree majoring in maths than those \u201cout-of-field\u201d teachers.<\/p>\n

But in England, the Department of Education has an ongoing problem of under-recruitment of maths teachers. In the year 2023-24, recruitment in initial trainee maths teaching reached only\u00a063% of its target<\/a>. Research from 2018 found that\u00a0less than half<\/a>\u00a0of maths teachers in state schools have a mathematics or other relevant degree.<\/p>\n

And maths achievement\u00a0is declining<\/a>. In the OECD\u2019s programme for international student assessment (Pisa) tests, introduced in the year 2000, 15 year-olds in the UK are\u00a0recording their lowest maths results<\/a>\u00a0since 2006.<\/p>\n

The longstanding failure to recruit enough maths graduates to become teachers is now set to be exacerbated by the changes in maths provision at universities.\u00a0Maths degrees are becoming less accessible<\/a>\u00a0to the people who are likely to go on to become teachers.<\/p>\n

University options<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Over the previous decade, but particularly since the pandemic,\u00a0Russell Group universities<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 research-intensive institutions that take students with the highest A-level grades \u2014 have increased their intake of students taking maths degrees.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, maths options are declining at lower-tariff universities and those that offer flexible study options.<\/p>\n

Birkbeck, University of London,\u00a0no longer offers<\/a>\u00a0undergraduate degrees in maths as a single subject. Birkbeck is renowned for its provision of evening and part-time degree courses, which offers flexibility for students who may not be able to attend a traditional course or need to work while studying.<\/p>\n

Huddersfield has also\u00a0discontinued its mathematics<\/a>\u00a0courses after reviewing its provision, and many\u00a0other institutions<\/a>\u00a0are considering further cuts and redundancies.<\/p>\n

In 2011, lower-tariff institutions accounted for 13% of the market share of the intake of mathematics students. This dropped to just\u00a04.5% in 2021<\/a>, putting such institutions under severe pressure.<\/p>\n

Graduates of post-92 universities \u2013 former polytechnics and other recently established institutions, which often require lower grades for entry \u2013 are much more likely than their Russell Group counterparts to go into school teaching. A recent report by\u00a0Professor Paul Wakeling<\/a>, which was commissioned by\u00a0the Campaign for Mathematical Sciences<\/a>, analysed outcomes of mathematical degrees in the UK across the period 2017-18 to 2020-21.<\/p>\n

Over that period, it found that 17.4% of graduates from post-92 institutions went into the secondary teaching, compared with around 5.6% from Russell group universities.<\/p>\n

The closure of mathematics departments causes the phenomenon of\u00a0\u201cmaths deserts\u201d<\/a>: large swaths of the country where access to mathematics degree study is limited. This particularly affects students from poorer backgrounds, who are more likely to be living at home during their degree and will attend their local university.<\/p>\n

This also affects the provision of school maths teachers. Graduates in mathematics from more disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds are\u00a0more likely to go into school teaching<\/a>\u00a0than graduates from more wealthy backgrounds.<\/p>\n

The decline in the availability of maths degrees at lower-tariff institutions is likely to be reducing the number of potential maths teachers \u2013 as well as severely reducing the diversity of people going into maths.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0chronic shortage<\/a>\u00a0of specialist maths teachers is set to worsen. Universities around the country are under\u00a0severe financial pressure<\/a>, which is likely to lead to further cutting of courses and staff.<\/p>\n

This will only exacerbate the problem of teacher shortages \u2013 which is turn will lead to declining mathematical literacy in the community, as well as a lack of diversity in mathematics.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Neil Saunders is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, City St George’s at the University of London<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone should leave school with a solid understanding of maths. Decent mathematics literacy is a hugely important skill in many aspects of life. We need it when budgeting for a weekly shop, asking for a pay rise and completing a tax return. 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