People looking for their first maths teaching job could be paid up to £40,000 a year. University fellows with a PhD in maths or physics are being offered the huge cash incentive to become school teachers in England in a bid to build a pipeline of talent to prevent a shortage of maths teachers. Last summer, Professor John Howson from Oxford Brookes University said the UK could be hit by a shortage of maths and science teachers. In what could be perceived as an effort to prevent this, now the Maths and Physics Chairs programme has been launched, joint-funded by the government and businesses including Samsung, GlaxoSmithKline, Barclays and BAE Systems. The Department for Education explained that these commercial sponsors would provide £75,000 over three years to fund the "salary uplifts" and the cost of training and placing applicants in schools. It is hoped these teachers will then produce the kind of young talent that can be utilised in the business and engineering world over the coming years. It is the latest facet of a scheme that forms part of the Researchers in Schools training programme for PhD graduates and education minister Elizabeth Truss said too many teenagers believe maths and physics to be "niche subjects", but stressed this was the wrong point of view. "They open the door to careers in everything from business or journalism to technology or engineering. "By getting experts into schools we can build a pipeline from GCSE through to A-level and beyond into the world of work - teenagers studying these subjects will go on to underpin a flourishing UK economy," she said. The government said the new scheme would make for "more inspirational, practical and cutting-edge" teaching and transform the way the subjects are taught in schools in England. Was this necessary? Should existing inspirational teachers not be rewarded for the jobs they do or is it a simple case of supply and demand? Let us know your views on the matter. Posted by Darryl Mydat