STEM teacher salaries must be as competitive as possible with the private sector, and we welcome the new STEM-focused bursaries and wider efforts by the Government to recruit and retain STEM teachers. However, we do not think the amounts currently on offer will prove anywhere near sufficient to address longstanding shortages, particularly in subjects such as computer science and physics. The fact that such a significant proportion of current university graduates in STEM subjects would be needed to address the shortfall underlines the scale of the challenge.