Pupils from poor homes far more likely to be taught by unqualified teachers

Pupils from the poorest homes are at far greater risk of being taught by staff untrained in the subject they are teaching, according to government figures.

The statistics, which show that nationally nearly four out of 10 teachers have to teach subjects for which they are not trained, reveal a "postcode lottery" in which children at schools in the most deprived areas of England are far less likely to be taught by someone well-qualified than those at more privileged institutions.

The findings, from a school staffing survey, were described last night as "deeply disturbing" by teachers' leaders and opposition MPs, who demanded extra cash to lure the brightest staff into the most disadvantaged schools.

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The figures show that pupils in key subject areas, such as English and geography, are twice as likely to be taught by a teacher not trained in the subject if they attend the most disadvantaged schools. More than a third of geography teachers in the schools with the highest percentage of children receiving free school meals did not qualify in the subject – compared to just 15 per cent in those serving the most affluent areas.

The gap is also wide in maths – where 35 per cent of teachers are not qualified compared with just 21 per cent – and English, 29 per cent compared to 13 per cent, according to the figures from the National Foundation for Education Research

The Government's keenly anticipated curriculum staffing review – which was originally scheduled for publication last year – shows that 38 per cent of all teachers are teaching a subject for which they do not have a qualification beyond A-level.

Only 43 per cent have a degree in the subject they teach, although this figure excludes those who took a Bachelor of Education course after university. That means that, at any one time, there could be as many as 700,000 secondary school pupils in classes with staff not qualified in the subject they are learning.

The figures show that one in four teachers taking maths lessons are not qualified beyond A-level in the subject. In English, the figure is 21 per cent.

They are not the worst – only 41 per cent taking information and communication technology have a degree in the subject. In business studies – a subject Gordon Brown wants to be at the heart of the curriculum – only 50 per cent have a post A-level qualification.

The only bright spot was science where 96 per cent of all teachers in biology and physics had a post A-level qualification in the subject.

"Golden handshakes" worth up to £6,000-a-year aimed at recruiting teachers in shortage subjects have helped recruitment – although in modern languages, where a similar package is on offer, their effect is less marked. Forty per cent of Spanish teachers, 28 per cent of German and 23 per cent of French do not have a post A-level qualification in the subject.

John Bangs, head of education at the National Union of Teachers, said: "I have never seen a more compelling argument for trying to attract the most highly qualified specialist teachers into the most challenging schools. Instead, they don't want to jeopardise their careers by being labelled as working in a failing school by Ofsted (the education standards watchdog)."

Michael Gove, for the Conservatives, said: "The Government has comprehensively failed over the last 10 years to ensure that we have improved the skills of our teaching workforce to make it truly world-class."

The Schools minister, Jim Knight, said: "The lack of maths and science graduates is not unique to teaching... We have great programmes in place which take top graduates and puts them in challenging schools.

Proportion of teachers without post A-level qualification

COMPUTING 59%

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 53%

BUSINESS STUDIES 50%

CLASSICS 47%

DESIGN TECHNOLOGY 47%

DRAMA 44%

SPANISH 40%

GERMAN 28%

GEOGRAPHY 27%

MATHS 25%

HISTORY 24%

FRENCH 23%

ART 22%

ENGLISH 21%

SCIENCE 19%

PE 17%

MUSIC 13%

PHYSICS 10%

BIOLOGY 4%

CHEMISTRY 4%