British schools are testing the use of ‘robot teachers’ in the classroom in a bid to ease staffing shortages.

Two primary schools in Plymouth have been trialling the use of the machines to replace teaching assistants for eight to 10 year olds.

The move follows concerns over a lack of teaching staff in the UK, particularly in maths and science. The shortfall has meant a worsening teacher-pupil ratio, rising from 15.5 students per teacher in 2010 to 17 in 2018.

"Creating autonomous social robot behaviours is a core challenge in social robotics, in both technical and ethical terms,” said study leader Dr Emmanuel Senft from Plymouth University.

"My dream is that everyone should be able to profit from robots, not only engineers, and I think allowing people to teach robots to interact is the way to go."

According to Plymouth University, teachers can train the robots within just three hours by showing them techniques they use in the classroom.