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Teacher shortages in key subjects such as physics and maths are getting worse in England’s schools, an all-party committee of MPs warns.

And a scathing report by the House of Commons Education Select Committee blasts the government for lacking a long-term plan to address the teacher shortage crisis.

The MPs say the government has missed recruitment targets for five years in a row and urgent action is needed to retain teachers once they are in the classroom and propose a cap on teachers’ hours.

Teachers’ unions have complained that excessive workload, six years of below-inflation pay rises and constant government meddling with education have driven thousands of the brightest graduates from the profession.

Neil Carmichael MP, committee chairman, said:”The quality of education our children receive fundamentally relies on the quality of teachers in our schools.

“Schools are facing significant teacher shortages as a result of the Government consistently failing to meet recruitment targets.

“The Government must now put in place a long-term plan to tackle the problems of recruiting and retaining teachers and address issues, such as teacher workload and access to professional development, which can drive teachers away from the classroom and into alternative careers.”

The report adds:“The Government invests a large amount of public money into improving the status of the teaching profession, but there are still major challenges with teacher supply, some of which appear to be worsening.”

Many initial teacher training (ITT) targets have been missed, including in core English Baccalaureate subjects - the subjects ministers say gives teenagers a good academic grounding for the future.

A key reason for teachers considering leaving the profession is workload, the committee says, and more should be done to tackle this issue.

“All school leaders should promote a culture of wellbeing in their schools, which will include taking greater account of teacher workload. This could include implementing the recommendations of the workload challenge or ‘capping’ the number of hours teachers work outside of teaching time.”

The committee heard that in Nottingham, education chiefs have produced a charter for schools to sign up to that caps the amount of time teachers work beyond their directed hours, which includes tasks such as marking work, planning and attending meetings as well as teaching pupils.

Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said: “Teaching can be one of the most rewarding professions. However, the increasingly unacceptable workloads have made it more and more difficult both to recruit new teachers and to prevent existing teachers leaving.

“The report highlights that recruitment and retention have been a serious problem for many years.

"Far too many teachers have been driven out of a profession they love as a result of ill-thought out and punitive education policy.

"Justine Greening (education secretary) should take heed of this report and for the sake of children and young people listen to the profession and bring about the sort of change that is evidence-based and has the backing of teachers to sort this serious problem out.”

(Image: PA)

And Russell Hobby, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said his members were acutely aware of the recruitment crisis.

"Teachers work longer hours for less pay, as the government has allowed salaries to fall by 11.5% in real terms since 2010," he said.

Meanwhile, a snapshot survey of 850 school support staff by the GMB union in London found most were regularly working unpaid hours to keep schools functioning.

More than two-thirds were working unpaid overtime and eight out of ten working through their breaks and nearly in three classroom assistants were regularly standing in for a qualified teacher, of which 70% received no extra pay.

Daren Parmenter, GMB Regional Organiser said: “It is clear that our schools struggle to manage tight budgets and it is only the goodwill of our members who are the backbone of our schools who keep them functioning.”