TEACHERS of physics and chemistry should be paid more than those in other subjects so as to attract bright graduates and tackle a severe shortage which threatens Britain’s competitiveness, a Lords committee warns today.

A report from the science and technology committee says the government needs to act urgently to reverse a collapse in the number of state school pupils taking science subjects.

The committee is concerned that the shortage of teachers is being compounded by schools worried about league table positions. The schools push pupils to study “soft” A-level subjects such as psychology, media studies and photography rather than academically demanding “hard” sciences.

It calls for “significantly higher” salaries for physics and chemistry teachers.

If adopted, the move would be likely to spark opposition from teachers’ unions, but Lord Broers, the former vice-chancellor of Cambridge University who chaired the inquiry, said that increased salaries were vital.

“The government has to recognise market forces require them to pay science graduates more than others,” said Broers. “The future of British science and engineering is at risk because pupils are not being inspired to study science.”

Last Friday Tony Blair called for more young people to take up science to counter “irrational public debate” on subjects such as genetically modified foods and stem cell research.

He added that science was “not a life all spent in a laboratory but has the best business and job prospects the modern world can offer”.

The Lords committee adds urgency to Blair’s call, documenting the steep decline, particularly in physics, in the past 15 years. The number studying the subject at A-level in comprehensives has gone down from 18,000 to 11,000.

Across all schools, only 24,600 pupils took physics A-level in 2005. Half the A-grades are achieved by candidates from independent schools, which educate only 8% of the population.

About a quarter of state schools for 11-16-year-olds do not even have a qualified physics teacher and 12% have no qualified chemistry teacher.

“Poor quality teaching means pupils do not choose the subject to study,” said Broers.

The report also accuses ministers of reneging on an election promise to spend £200m improving laboratories. Some 66% of science facilities in state schools have been assessed as “basic or unsatisfactory”.

Many schools, the report says, have almost given up practical science lessons. Teachers say science classes are too big or too badly behaved for practicals to be safe.

The Lords also believes the government should broaden the number of subjects that pupils study after the age of 16.

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