Viertel der Schulen in England fehlt ein Physiklehrer, findet Analysen fest
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/sep/02/quarter-schools-england-lack-physics-teacher?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-5
Von BestButtons
Viertel der Schulen in England fehlt ein Physiklehrer, findet Analysen fest
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/sep/02/quarter-schools-england-lack-physics-teacher?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-5
Von BestButtons
17 Kommentare
> The lack of specialists means more than half (58%) of pupils studying for a science GCSE will have the physics component taught by a teacher who has not studied a physics-related subject beyond the age of 18.
> An estimated 700,000 pupils are affected, according to the Institute of Physics, which carried out the analysis and is calling for urgent action to tackle what it describes as a “chronic and critical” shortage of specialist physics teachers.
> “Data show that only 4% of students in the lowest socioeconomic status quintile take physics A-level, compared with about 11% in the highest quintile, and that 70% of A-level physics students come from just 30% of schools,” it says.
Chickens coming home to roost:
> It is not a new problem. The lack of physics teachers is down to three decades of low recruitment and high attrition rates, which have left the state system in need of an additional 3,500 specialists at a time when the country is facing a severe skills shortage.
Almost went into physics teaching.
Went to the local college to get some experience and the miserable head of physics told me, don’t do it. I only observed, so no indication on my ability to teach, just a miserable old fool telling me to basically piss off out of his area.
I thought we just had science teachers in high school? Given the level of physics we were tested on I wouldn’t think you’d need a specialist. Do the institutes of chemistry and biology not have the same complaint?
Why, if I had acquired a STEM degree, would I want the hassle of working in a school for pay way under what I would get in almost any other place? We pretty much all agree that teaching in our secondary schools is a pretty unpleasant job to have, it isn’t some mystery. The question should be how we make teaching an appealing career.
This explains why the youth are so bad at reading minds and predicting the future
A quarter of students will go to school believing the moon is made of cheese then right?
How unfortunate, our country has now fallen into the bracket of third world countries. Sound the alarm!
We’ve cut funding and increased what schools do for years, but somehow things aren’t working!?
Maybe a funding cut, free music lessons for everyone and raising the leaving age to 21 will work?
I don’t think headteachers understand the gravity of this situation.
Why would the STEM educated, individuals such as myself, work for low pay in crap conditions when we can make much more elsewhere?
If you want to compete for talent you have to be competitive.
This is only really an issue at A level. I can teach A level Chemistry and Biology, but would struggle to do physics.
Any science teacher should be able to teach physics up to GCSE though.
However, there are also not enough science teachers in general. We advertised multiple times and got no (credible) applicants. There is a massive crisis in teaching and its not just science
My child is studying Computer Science, for the first half of year 10 all was well, the teacher was good. Then she quit teaching. The second half of Year 10 was taught by a supply teacher, that was basically one Computer Science lesson ahead of the kids, he is also a complete twat that is unfit to be a teacher, in fact I can show you him…
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY7L-PZ4V8o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY7L-PZ4V8o)
Yes he is being completely serious, sadly. He spouts complete shit to the kids about their phones giving them brain tumours, vaccines being used for mind control, fairies being real and so on. I studied Computer Science at A Level and as an adult and he is teaching them complete nonsense.
Thankfully for year 11 they have employed a new Computer Science teacher, that hopefully gets them back on track.
Physics is too hard. If physics could just be easier then more people would be able to teach it better. 💡
In the private sector, when there’s a shortage of people with a particular skillset, businesses typically raise wages to attract talent. This doesn’t happen in teaching, however, because teachers’ unions strongly resist pay differentiation by subject.
I don’t blame them,
As more people outsource parenting to the state the teachers are seen as a figure of authority. Add shite wages and long hours ontop of this what do you expect it.
My school was terrible and many of the teachers ended up spending time on the most missbehaved and the top 1%. This honestly caused me to fall through the cracks. There’s limited male role models and generally anyone who has a passion for teaching gets burnt out.
I was a physics teacher, and a few years ago, I tutored science and maths at a school in the sticks, with my little room next to the science labs. I had to go and politely speak to the teachers multiple times because they were giving completely wrong information, and even somewhat dangerous information regarding practicals…
I’ve seen so many good students over the years that have given up on physics and science in general, and often that can be attributed to the teaching.
5 years ago, if you had the skills and qualifications to teach physics you could have earned more doing other things like finance, engineering, design, etc etc.
But now with our awful job market teaching physics or maths is not that bad.
30k bursary to train.
You’ll always be in demand if you are decent, starting pay of over 30k, and I believe retention bursary of £6000 a year for first three years of teaching. And teachers pension.
It’s a no brainer in today’s job market.
Shit pay, shit conditions and you’re expected to teach biology, chemistry as well as cover lessons like Art – things that physicists generally have no knowledge or interest in.