Meon Valley MP Flick Drummond called for action to combat teacher shortages in secondary schools.

A recent report by an education committee, on which Drummond sits, revealed the Department for Education missed teacher recruitment targets for key areas including business studies, music, and computing.

The committee found instances of teachers instructing outside their specialities and some subjects being dropped.

Suggestions proposed to counter the shortage include more funding for bursaries in subjects facing a shortage, an increase in retention payments, reversing career development programme cuts and decreased bureaucracy with added focus on children’s mental health.

Ms Drummond said: "The report is very clear there needs to be a comprehensive look at how to recruit and crucially keep secondary school teachers and I hope the government will act on the committee’s sensible recommendations.

"It is worrying teachers are taking classes they are not qualified to take because of this shortage. This must be adding to stress and workload - two major reasons teachers are leaving.

"This must be addressed with some urgency otherwise the situation will not improve."