Golden hello work in maths and science

Applications are up for postgraduate teacher training courses in maths and science, apparently bucking a trend that threatened a recruitment crisis.

The latest Teacher Training Agency figures show applications for postgraduate certificates of education in maths up by 15 per cent on the same time last year and across the board in science up by 6 per cent.

But the TTA would not break down the science figures. This would have revealed whether physics recruitment was improving. The number of trainee physics teachers on courses this year was down by 35 per cent on 1997-98. The TTA also refused to give applications figures for other subjects that may be down. A spokesman said that such figures would be meaningless so early in the recruitment cycle. Extra applications to maths and science could be because of the Pounds 5,000 "golden hellos" offered from this September.