ENGLAND'S schools are suffering from worsening teacher shortages, particularly in key subjects such as physics and maths, MPs have warned.

According to the Commons Education Select Committee, the Government has failed to deal with the problem, missing recruitment targets for the past five years in a row.

In a highly critical new report, it called for urgent action, including more focus on retaining teachers once they are in the classroom, and suggesting a cap on the number of hours teachers work.

Committee chairman Neil Carmichael warned that the quality of education children receive relies on good teachers and that ministers must put in place a long-term plan to tackle issues with recruiting and retaining school staff.

It argues that while ministers have recognised that there are issues, it has not addressed the problem and lacks a long-term plan to do so.

Many initial teacher training (ITT) targets have been missed, including in core English Baccalaureate subjects - the subjects ministers say gives teenagers a good academic grounding for the future.

A key reason for teachers considering leaving the profession is workload, the committee says, and more should be done to tackle this issue.

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The committee heard that in Nottingham, education chiefs have produced a charter for schools to sign up to that caps the amount of time teachers work beyond their directed hours, which includes tasks such as marking work, planning and attending meetings as well as teaching pupils.