IOP responds to education secretary on physics teachers shortage

Gillian Keegan MP, secretary of state for education, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, said we need to look for fresh solutions to the desperate shortage of physics teachers.

Responding, Tom Grinyer, chief executive of the Institute of Physics group, said: “A shortage of physics teachers is a double tragedy – it is bad for the economy because it starves businesses of the crucial skills they need to compete and innovate and bad for young people’s life chances.

“There needs to be a concerted national effort to do more to recruit and retain specialist physics teachers, especially in areas where there is poor or no provision.

“We need to ensure all our young people have well-marked and well-trodden routes into the A-levels, apprenticeships and degree courses that can open up the transformational opportunities provided by studying physics.”