Teacher recruitment analyst John Howson is calling for trainee teachers to be paid starting salaries, to stem a national shortage of entrants to the profession.

The call by Oxford-based Mr Howson, a visiting Fellow at Oxford Brookes University, comes after shortages for certain subjects were revealed on secondary teaching courses across the country.

In some subjects, the shortage has become particularly chronic.

Oxford University's course for trainee physics teachers has become the only one in Britain to attract entrants running into double figures - and even this course still has vacancies.

Teacher training courses across Britain have also reported chronic shortages in other subjects including mathematics and design and technology.

Mr Howson told the Oxford Mail that paying trainee teachers salaries would be the only way to reverse the trend.

He said the one solution would be to give training places to schools, which would provide their own trainee with a salary, rather like app- rentices.

He said: "Without that, (salaries for trainees) it's going to be difficult to stem the tide.

"Teacher training is an intensive 40-week course plus travelling to and from school sites. "

Trainee secondary teachers can currently expect to amass debts running into thousands of pounds during the typical year-long training course, as they only receive a nominal maintenance grant.

Mr Howson added: "Trainee probation officers who study part-time now get £11,000 as a starting salary. I was staggered by that."

He said that the shortage of physics teachers would mean that some schools would find it extremely difficult to recruit.

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