Finding a teacher and finding the right teacher are two very different problems.

Schools can advertise a vacancy, collect CVs and conduct interviews. But when the position is in a shortage subject such as mathematics, the real challenge begins much earlier: finding candidates who have the appropriate qualifications, subject knowledge, curriculum experience and classroom skills—and who genuinely want to join your school.

The numbers illustrate the problem.

In a 2025 Gallup study, 82% of U.S. education leaders said hiring well-qualified mathematics teachers was challenging, with 48% describing it as very challenging. Mathematics was reported as more difficult to recruit for than science, English language arts or social studies.

The Learning Policy Institute found a similar pattern. In the 2024–25 school year, 40 states reported mathematics teacher shortages, while approximately one in eight U.S. teaching positions overall was either vacant or filled by a teacher who was not fully certified for the assignment.

The situation is improving in some markets. For example, NFER's 2026 analysis of England found encouraging improvements in teacher recruitment and retention. But secondary recruitment remains below target overall, and shortages continue to affect particular subjects and schools disproportionately.

In other words, the problem isn't simply a lack of teachers.

It is a shortage of the right teachers in the right places.

The Teacher Shortage Is Also a Qualification Problem

When schools struggle to recruit, there is an understandable temptation to broaden the candidate pool.

But filling a timetable is not the same as solving a staffing problem.

The Learning Policy Institute estimates that hundreds of thousands of U.S. teaching positions are currently staffed by teachers who are not fully certified for their assignments. Schools experiencing shortages may also rely on substitutes, increase class sizes or assign teachers outside their areas of expertise.

England has seen similar pressures. NFER reported increased reliance on unqualified teachers and non-specialists, including teachers delivering subjects such as maths and physics outside their specialisms.

And mathematics creates an additional problem.

Someone with strong mathematical skills may have career options in data, technology, engineering, finance and many other industries. Schools are therefore not simply competing against other schools for talented candidates.

They are competing against entirely different careers.

Teacher forums reflect this problem as well. Discussions among teachers repeatedly describe maths and science as substantially harder-to-fill subjects than areas with larger candidate pools. International-school discussions also demonstrate another difficulty: having plenty of people interested in teaching abroad does not mean having plenty of candidates with the correct teaching qualification, experience and curriculum background.

This is why recruitment needs to begin with vetting rather than volume.

1. Vet Candidates Before They Reach the School

A large pile of CVs creates work. It does not necessarily create options.

A school leader recruiting a mathematics teacher may need to determine:

Does this candidate have an appropriate degree?
Do they hold a recognised teaching qualification?
How much genuine classroom experience do they have?
Which curricula have they taught?
Have they actually taught the age range required?
Can they explain mathematics clearly?
Can they manage a classroom?
Are their expectations compatible with the position?
Are they genuinely willing and able to relocate?

International recruitment adds further complications involving visas, safeguarding checks, references and qualification requirements.

At Full Marks Education, we believe that this work should happen before a candidate reaches the school.

We screen candidates against the requirements of the position so that schools are not spending leadership time reviewing candidates who were never realistic appointments in the first place.

Only qualified, relevant candidates are presented.

That changes the purpose of the school's interview.

Instead of determining whether a candidate meets the basic requirements, school leaders can concentrate on the questions that actually require their judgement:

Is this the right teacher for our students, department and school community?

2. Recorded Interviews Give School Leaders Their Time Back

Recruitment can become surprisingly expensive in one resource schools rarely measure:

leadership time.

Every initial interview requires scheduling across time zones, correspondence with candidates and participation from senior staff or heads of department.

If ten candidates require 30-minute screening interviews, the school has already committed at least five hours of leadership time—before considering scheduling, preparation or follow-up.

And international recruitment makes coordinating diaries even more difficult.

Our approach is different.

As part of the Full Marks Education recruitment process, we interview candidates and record the interviews for the school.

That gives school leaders the ability to evaluate potential hires without having to attend every first-round conversation themselves.

A head of mathematics can watch an interview when convenient.

A principal can review the strongest candidate.

Another member of the leadership team can watch the same interview later.

Important moments can be revisited rather than relying entirely on interview notes or memory.

And once a promising candidate appears, the school can move directly toward the next stage.

That matters because strong candidates frequently have several opportunities available to them.

Recruitment shouldn't become a contest to see which school can organise a Zoom meeting first.

Recorded interviews help schools make faster decisions while actually spending more of their time evaluating the candidates who matter.

3. Recruitment Shouldn't End When the Contract Is Signed

This may be the most important part.

A successful recruitment process does not end with:

"Candidate accepted the offer."

It ends when the teacher becomes successful in the school.

Teacher shortages are driven substantially by retention as well as recruitment. The Learning Policy Institute estimates that teacher attrition generates around 90% of annual teacher demand, meaning schools cannot recruit their way out of the problem if teachers continually leave the profession or move elsewhere.

Workload is one of the reasons this happens.

NFER found that 90% of teachers considering leaving teaching cited high workload as a factor.

This is where Full Marks Education's recruitment model is fundamentally different.

We don't just recruit mathematics teachers.

We also build mathematics curriculum.

Full Marks Education develops classroom-ready curriculum resources designed to remove some of the repetitive planning work that consumes teachers' evenings and weekends. Our existing work combines IB Maths resources with international maths teacher recruitment around the same goal: helping teachers spend more of their time teaching and less of it recreating materials that could already exist.

Teachers recruited through Full Marks Education can therefore be supported with our curriculum materials rather than simply being placed into a school and left to build everything from scratch.

That support can include structured curriculum materials such as lesson resources, notes, practice, assessments and other classroom materials relevant to the courses they teach.

The goal isn't to remove teacher autonomy.

It is to remove unnecessary work.

A great teacher should be spending their energy thinking about:

How can I help this student understand this concept?

—not:

How am I going to create tomorrow's worksheet at 10:30 tonight?

Better-Supported Teachers Can Become Better Hires

There is an important connection here between curriculum, wellbeing and retention.

Imagine two teachers starting identical positions.

One arrives and discovers that they need to construct much of the course themselves: slide decks, notes, worksheets, assessments, revision materials and sequencing.

The other enters with a strong curriculum foundation already available and can modify those resources around the students in front of them.

Both may be excellent teachers.

But their daily experience of the job could be very different.

Reducing unnecessary preparation gives teachers more capacity for the parts of teaching that actually require a professional teacher: building relationships, giving feedback, identifying misconceptions, adapting instruction and supporting students.

It also makes genuine work-life balance more achievable.

And teachers who feel successful and supported are much more likely to become the kind of staff members every school wants to retain.

The objective should not simply be to fill the vacancy.

It should be to make your new teacher one of your best hires.

A Different Model for Maths Teacher Recruitment

Traditional recruitment often looks something like this:

Advertise → collect CVs → review CVs → schedule interviews → interview candidates → hire → start again when another vacancy appears.

We think schools deserve something better.

The Full Marks Education process is built around three principles:

1. Quality

We vet candidates so that only appropriately qualified candidates are presented to the school.

2. Speed

We conduct and record initial interviews so school leaders can review candidates efficiently and move quickly when they find the right person.

3. Support

We don't disappear when the recruitment process finishes. Our background in curriculum development allows us to support teachers with high-quality teaching resources, helping reduce unnecessary workload and giving new hires a stronger start.

It turns recruitment from a transaction into a longer-term process:

Find the right teacher → make the hiring decision easier → help that teacher succeed.

Don't Just Fill Your Next Maths Vacancy

There will always be schools capable of generating hundreds of applications.

But that isn't the measure that matters.

The question is:

How many of those candidates would you actually want teaching your students?

Finding qualified mathematics teachers remains disproportionately difficult, particularly in hard-to-staff schools and locations.

The solution isn't necessarily more CVs.

It is a better recruitment process.

Better vetting. Faster decision-making. Better support after the hire.

That's what Full Marks Education is building.

If your school is looking for its next mathematics teacher, Full Marks Education can help you find qualified candidates, evaluate them efficiently and give the successful teacher the curriculum support needed to start strong.

Learn more about Full Marks Education

How Full Marks Education Scouts, Recruits, and Retains High-quality International Maths Teachers