This research by NFER and the Gatsby Foundation, explores the impact of pay and financial incentives on shortage subject teacher supply. It finds evidence that a number of economic and financial factors are associated with higher teacher recruitment, including higher teacher pay and bursaries and a weaker wider labour market.
England has been facing a significant teacher supply challenge, marked particularly by undersupply of the maths, physics and chemistry teachers required to deliver a high-quality science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education across the country. There has been chronic under-recruitment and higher-than-average leaving rates for maths and science, primarily due to STEM graduates having relatively attractive career options outside of teaching, compared to teachers of other subjects.
Teacher pay in England is not differentiated by subject, so differences in the financial attractiveness of outside options matters greatly for the health of supply in these subjects.
Subject-specific bursaries, with the highest levels for maths and science subjects, have provided some level of remedy, but in recent years this has not been enough to ensure sufficient teacher supply. In addition, the piloting of early career payments for maths and physics teachers has also shown promising evidence of being effective at increasing teacher retention.
However, since Covid-19 restrictions were lifted during the spring and summer of 2021, the wider labour market has recovered rapidly, eroding the relative attraction of teaching as a career option and therefore making recruitment and retention more challenging.