Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to increase the number of maths teachers in (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) sixth form colleges.

Recruitment to mathematics remains challenging in both schools and colleges. However, school teacher recruitment performance against targets has increased consistently since 2019/20 in mathematics before stabilising in 2022/23.

The Department has put in place a range of measures for trainees in 2023, including bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000, to encourage talented individuals to apply to train in key subjects such as mathematics.

For those intending to work as mathematics teachers in colleges, training bursaries worth £29,000 each are available in 2023/24. The Department’s Taking Teaching Further programme also supports new teachers training in colleges, including teachers of mathematics.

The Department is offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax free annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

Alongside financial levers, the Department continues to take action in attracting the best teachers where they are needed most through its teaching marketing campaign and support services for prospective trainees, and its new in house teacher recruitment journey and associated digital services.

The Department is also widening the pool of people who can access teacher training for schools, across all subjects including mathematics, through programmes such as High Potential Initial Teacher Training, Subject Knowledge Enhancement courses and the Career Changers programme.