A top education official has said that teachers should be able to qualify without having a GCSE in maths to help solve Britain's secondary school recruitment crisis. Should all teachers have a GCSE in maths even if they're teaching subjects like PE or Art?

If you can’t get a 4 in GCSE maths then unfortunately you’re not suitable to teach. It’s a rigorous and challenging profession and any attempts to de skill the workforce will only weaken the profession. It’s a grade 4 ffs strong year 6 students are capable of achieving this.

I think everyone thinks teaching PE in secondary school is easy. I studied GCSE PE and there was a lot of theory behind it. It was basically biology. I think there should be a minimum requirement for teaching. Having gcse's in English, maths and science isn't asking for much.

If you keep lowering the standards, then you will keep lowering the results, the crisis is more about the civil service bully culture and not allowing teachers to teach because of lawsuit culture, too long we have gone down the this road, and these are the results....just saying.

To attract more teachers, wouldn’t it be better to pay them properly, reform ofsted and actually respect them!

Not that it would entirely fix it… But the solution to the secondary school recruitment crisis isn’t to continually hire more teachers, it is to retain the teachers you already have by improving working conditions and culture for teachers So many teachers quit and move to other professions due to unpleasant treatment, unreasonable and unnecessary expectations, low pay, and so many other reasons We need to reconsider how we treat teachers and consider the teacher’s views on new policies (and whether they would actually help students learn or just cause more paperwork) before implementing them🤷‍♀️

Yes, they should. Maths and English at GCSE should be a basic requirement of all teachers. Also, all teachers should have a degree. To accept/expect less diminishes the profession.

Lowering expectations is not the answer. All teachers teach literacy and numeracy in every discipline so it’s right that we have high expectations of prospective teachers. Let’s talk about retention. How are you going to keep the teachers we have already?

My friend is a high school art teacher, the way the school system treats teachers with 6months & 1 year contracts I believe could be a big factor in these recruitment issues. My friend would absolutely love a secure job teaching art for the rest of her career, but being in the higher pay bracket due to her grades and experience has not helped. There are lots of qualified and experienced teachers like her, who have spent years at university! But schools aren't willing to pay these people the salary they deserve, and giving them short contracts, should be a national shame. I also have a close relative, who spent decades teaching, and the way they treated her at the end, was a disgrace. Despite these women's experience and knowledge and years of training, the schools are treating them very poorly. Sort the recruiter's, the school management and not the grades @GMB should investigate this scandal as there is more to this story than meets the word eyes Allow teachers to speak up without being named to protect them Would unearth the root behind the lack of recruitment Please do the investigation because it's a national scam Unions, I don't feel stand up for teachers enough, knowing what I know It's embarrassing tbh

This is a distraction from the real issue about recruitment and retention of teachers - that is pay and working conditions. Deal with that.