Maths Teacher Shortage!

‘i’ Newspaper front page, 13th August 2013

I’m enjoying my summer hols. Today, I went for my daily swim at my local open air lido, swam my kilometer (pauses to polish halo), came home, made my lunch and settled down outside to eat it. Turning on the radio and tucking in to my first sandwich as the sun beat down on me, I looked at the front page of my paper and froze, mid-bite, as I saw the headline pictured above.

It would seem that we maths teachers are a rare species and, whilst not yet at risk of becoming extinct (which, no doubt, would delight millions of school children across the land), our numbers continue to get fewer.

30% of place on maths PGCEs (Post Graduate Certificate in Education – teacher training in plain language) have not been filled for this September, which could lead to a potential shortfall of 700 maths teachers in a year’s time. Oh dear. And this whilst we are still in the teeth of an economic downturn, a time when, traditionally, more people enter teaching as other jobs are not there.

I often joke that, come mid-July (when our long summer holiday begins), teaching is the best job in the world. (Most of the time) Teaching maths is great – if you’ve got the skills, why not join us, “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers” (thanks to the English dept. for supplying that Shakespeare quote from Henry V).

So make sure you look after your maths teachers – you don’t know where your next one will come from!

Happy hols – I’ll be swimming again tomorrow. A swimming maths teacher, now that is a rare sight!