The government has announced today new plans for attracting top quality teachers into the profession. In a bid to narrow the gap between high performing overseas educational institutions and the relative poor performance by comparison of the UK’s state schools, top graduates will be attracted into the teaching profession to help drive up standards in schools.

Michael Gove, Education Secretary said in a statement, “If we want to have an education system that ranks with the best in the world, then we need to attract the best people to train to teach, and we need to give them outstanding training.”

“We have some excellent teachers in this country, but many who could make a huge difference in the lives of children choose other professions.”

“We value our teachers highly, but the current system of funding does not incentivise the best. The system needs to change.”

There has also been a longstanding problem recruiting the high quality maths and science teachers into UK state schools. Only 2% of the highest achieving graduates from our top universities train to become teachers on graduating. By comparison South Korea recruits teachers from the top 5% of graduates and Finland from the top 10%.

Last year around 260 fewer trainees to physics initial teacher training courses and 80 fewer chemistry trainees than were needed. The Institute of Physics have also said 1,000 new specialist physics teachers each year would need to be recruited for 15 years to plug the gap.

The new government proposals would offer high quality graduates including science and maths specialists up to £20,000 for graduates with first class honours degree. They currently only receive bursaries of up to £9,000.

Proposals require all trainees to have high standards of maths and English - trainees will need to pass tougher literacy and numeracy tests before they start training. Candidates who fail one or both of the skills tests at the first attempt will be limited to two re-sits for each test. Currently they only take the tests after starting their training course and they are allowed unlimited re-sits.

Stephen Hillier, Chief Executive of the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) has responded to the proposed measures, “The TDA welcomes the Government’s ambitious plans for improving teacher recruitment and training.”

“The proposals will greatly enhance our ability to recruit the very best graduates into teaching, especially in subjects where demand is high. They will create a significant shift towards schools taking more responsibility for recruiting and training the next generation of teachers, within strong university/school partnerships, ensuring that the quality of training offered by universities and schools is as high as possible.”

The strategy is now out for public discussion and the final strategy will be published later this summer. The new system is planned to come into effect from September 2011, with most changes affecting new trainee teachers starting in September 2012.