Aggressive recruiting of Australian teachers by British agencies is adding to the nation’s teacher shortfall crisis, according to the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies.

Adding its voice to warnings by university deans of education that the shortage of primary and secondary teachers was getting worse, the federation said the market for science and mathematics teachers was being “brought to the boil”.

Two months ago The TES reported that 583 UK work permits were issued to Australian teachers between January and August of this year. Earlier this year John Aquilina, education minister of New South Wales, warned that his state would retaliate against Britain poaching its teachers.

FASTS’ vice-president Jan Thomas said shortages in these key subjects were hitting hard at country schools and those in disadvantaged areas, such as the western suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne. Ms Thomas said the shortages were forcing schools to use an increasing number of under-qualified teachers.

“School principals from remote areas have been making special trips to teacher-training institutions to recruit next year’s staff,” she said. “We haven’t seen that before. Things are only going to get worse. We’re bracing ourselves for when the Americans enter the recruiting market in pursuit of science and mathematics teachers, and American salaries and conditions look pretty attractive to Australians.”

Forty per cent of teachers taking maths in junior high-school classes in Australia were underqualified, she said. Some schools had reached the stage where they were dropping the more challenging aspects of mathematics and science.

The problem was twofold: a lack of organised programmes to update the knowledge of existing teachers, especially those teaching outside their field, and a shortage of young people entering science and mathematics teaching.

Ms Thomas called for federal and state governments to provide extra places at universities for teacher training and retraining. Funding was also needed to allow student teachers to undertake teaching practice in country schools.

Deans of education have warned that by 2005 the supply of new primary teachers will meet only 80 per cent of the demand, while the number of graduates from secondary-teacher education courses will satisfy a mere 66 per cent of schools’ requirements. Yet the federal government argues there is a reasonable balance between overall demand and supply.

Earlier this year, the government announced a “teachers for the 21st century” initiative to provide A$80 million (pound;30m) for improving teacher quality and increasing the number of “highly effective Australian schools”.

Primary and secondary teachers will be able to improve their skills in areas including science, maths and information and communication technology.