Warning over graduate teaching plan - graduate jobs

A potential move to offer financial support through teacher training to graduates with only "good degrees" could make it difficult to find teachers for science and maths, a report has warned.

If a 2:2 or higher funding benchmark is introduced it could make it even more challenging to find teachers for already under-recruited subjects, the report claimed.

The move would see fewer new teachers of subjects such as physics, chemistry, maths and languages, according to the Good Teaching Training Guide.

Furthermore, the number of potential physics teachers could fall by more than 25% if the suggestion is enforced, the annual report claimed.

The report was written by Professor Alan Smithers and Dr Pamela Robinson at the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham.

It said: "Michael Gove, when he was still shadow education secretary, floated the idea of only funding trainees with a 2:2 or better.

"The latest figures indicate that the proposal would be impractical for a number of subjects."

The report states that if Mr Gove's proposal had been operational in 2008/9 maths would have lost 410 trainees (21%), science 430 trainees (14%), modern languages 131 trainees (13%), design and technology 130 trainees (13%) and ICT would have 115 fewer trainees (15%).

Physics would have been the most badly affected subject, losing more than a quarter (26%) of its intake.