The growing shortage of physics teachers in Scotland can lead to worsening educational divides and compromise economic growth, writes Dr Iain Moore, Chair of the Institute of Physics (IOP) Scotland.

Scotland is a country that prides itself on its science and engineering pioneers.  

We are proud to be an industrious, innovative country with an incredible lineage of scientists and innovators. 

We are also rightly proud to have been early in our development of widespread education, and we are a country where everyone is given access to high-quality education.  

But the situation for physics teaching across our country within that system is now perilous. Some secondary schools have no physics teacher. 

The proportion and number of physics teachers in Scotland is declining every year – teacher recruitment has not met demand or the government’s own targets for years. And the average age of teachers in this subject is the fourth highest of any subject - a third will enter the retirement window within 10 years.  

STEM subjects represent half of teaching vacancies in secondary schools in Scotland, with areas outside the central belt particularly impacted. Areas with higher levels of socioeconomic deprivation face greater impact, too, with steeper declines and lower physics teacher-to-pupil ratios.   

The discoveries and........

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