MPs urge higher wages to attract best teachers

Schools struggling to recruit teachers should be able to pay staff more, a committee of MPs will recommend this week.

The Commons education select committee wants the Government to move away from national pay rates to allow schools to recruit and keep the best teachers. The MPs say the recruitment crisis in London has been eased by the system of pay rises for teachers working in and around the capital. Schools have also benefited from measures such as offering ?4,000 "golden hellos" for new teachers in shortage subjects such as foreign languages.

But the report says London's graded allowances

have created a knock-on effect for neighbouring counties which did not qualify for the bonuses. The MPs also call for a programme to recruit an elite band of teachers to work in England's toughest schools.