Nearly half of secondary schools have used non-specialists to teach at least some maths lessons amid ongoing recruitment issues in the sector, a new analysis has found.
A report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) also found that teachers whose degrees were in other subjects were being asked to deliver classes in physics and modern foreign languages (MFL).
In the academic years 2019/20 and 2020/21, 45 per cent of state-funded secondary schools surveyed for the research reported using non-specialist teachers for at least ‘some’ maths lessons. The figure for physics and MFL stood at 39 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.
All three subjects have failed to meet initial teacher training (ITT) targets over a number of years. An analysis by Schools Week of ITT recruitment for 2022/23 showed that physics was likely to take the biggest hit.
