£12m-a-year investment needed to address shortage in specialist physics teachers, government warned
In a report, more than 700,000 GCSE physics students can be without an expert teacher.
The Institute of Physics (GY) called for emergency action to solve the deficiency of physics teachers, and students who do not have access to an expert teacher are more likely to take physics further.
In July, the National Education Research Foundation (NFER) reported that a 2,296 sample was not an expert physics teacher in the school labor count of the school labor force.
NFF analysis assigned by IOP is provided by a physics teacher only 16 percent of the total teaching hours for combined science.
For separate physics GCSES, government data show that 72 percent of the teaching hours are taught by an expert teacher.
Combining NFF and government data, IOP estimates that approximately 58 percent of the physical courses in GCSE are taught by a non -expert teacher, which is equal to more than 350,000 students in 11th grade and more than 700,000 students in both GCSE.
IOP General Manager Tom Grinyer said: “Despite the heroic efforts of the teachers who should have to work on non -familiar issues, many of these students are inevitably missed. Research shows that students who do not have access to a specialist physics teacher are lower.
“If we cannot deal with this difficulty, we cannot feed the scientists and innovators of tomorrow – with serious consequences for our society and economy.”
Physics has faced the shortage of long -year expert teachers as one of the worst issues with a recruitment and retention crisis.
NFER’s latest data found that the number of practices to be taught physics has increased by 38 percent since July 2024. Nevertheless, physics were still expected to hit about 70 percent of the middle school recruitment target for 2025.
In the report, students in schools without expert physics teachers are more likely to progress to physics at level A.
Judith Hillier, Vice President of Learning and Skills, said that there are about 300 schools without students at a level A level and this is more common in poorer areas.
“Despite some recent increases in the number of physical areas, it is clear that too many young people are still rejected by a specialist physics teacher and opportunities that help to unlock their gains and progress,” he said.
The Institute calls for a 10 -year plan to address the lack of expert physics teachers with an investment of £ 12 million per year.
The government currently offers an £ 29,000 scholarship to encourage trainee physics teachers to teach more graduates. Physics teachers in disadvantaged schools can reach up to £ 6,000 in hand -retention payments while at the beginning of their careers.
An educational department spokesman said: “This year we offer our commitment to hiring and holding 6,500 more talented teachers, one of the lowest permission rates since 2010, one of the lowest permission rates of 2,300 more secondary and private teachers in classes and 6,500 more talented teachers and 6,500 more talented teachers.
“In addition, we have seen a 25 percent increase in the number of people who accepted the teachers who started the teacher education in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in this fall. With our change plan, we will go further to ensure that each student will access physical teachers, which is to ensure that each student is more talented, including encouraging people to teach physics.
“Beyond that, we have announced almost 10 percent payment awards for two years and we have committed to restore the teaching as a very valuable profession that should fight high workload and weak prosperity.”
