THOSE who can do - those who can't are deserting the teaching profession in droves, if recently published figures are to be believed.

It seems the classroom - traditional magnet for an eclectic mix of the dedicated, the vocational and the undecided - is losing its pulling power.

The General Teaching Council has warned that secondary schools are facing a crisis in recruitment as graduates seek jobs in professions where salaries, benefits and conditions of employment are more attractive.

The most motivated student teachers, with a strong sense of mission, see their idealism quickly tempered as their friends enter other professions on substantially highersalaries. Even the drifter with no career plan must think twice about entering a profession where the rewards for up to five years of study appear so scant.

Figures from the Teaching Education Clearing House reveal teacher training applications are 10% down on last year. The General Teaching Council claims applications for post-graduate courses have dropped by 30%.

Science subjects like physics and computing have been hit hardest because today's buoyant economy means businesses are recruiting more aggressively.

A probationary primary teacher can expect to earn #12,000 after four years of study, assuming a permanent job is available. Anecdotal evidence suggests many primary teachers spend their first five years on temporary contracts. An honours graduate with a post-graduate diploma in secondary teaching will earn #14,362.

Recent statistics showed starting salaries for teachers were almost 11% lower than those of other graduates.

The median starting salary for graduates this year is #16,000, compared with #15,500 last year when the overall spread of starting salaries ranged from #1,160 to #25,000. The country's top students are being wooed by as much as #23,000 with multi-nationals such as Anderson Consulting and JP Morgan.

The earning power of other professions in the public sector leaves teaching standing. The starting salary for police constables is #14,900 rising to #23,600. A junior doctor can expect to earn between #14,740 and #16,640 while the starting salary in the civil service is at least #13,000.

The top line for a classroom teacher is #21,954. Anyone who wants to earn more must start to climb the greasy pole of promotion where they must ignore teaching skills and concentrate on departmental management issues. The result is that more than half of teachers in Scotland's secondaries are in promoted posts.

The Government has already signalled its desire to reduce the number of such posts, freeing extra cash to pay higher salaries to dedicated classroom teachers. In the meantime teachers continue to complain about being overworked and underpaid. Even students already on courses at Scotland's eight teacher training colleges are unclear about their futures.

Edinburgh student Fiona Clyne is at the end of her third year in a four-year BEd course at Strathclyde University's Jordanhill campus. She says she entered the profession because she has always wanted to teach children but now she is having second thoughts.

She said: ''On school placements I have found the workload more than I expected. Teachers are feeling the pressure. The lack of permanent jobs is demoralising, particularly after studying for such a long time.

''I have a couple of friends who are going into insurance and banking. The pressure does not seem to be as bad as it is in teaching and they are earning a lot more. Even people who went into banking jobs straight from school are earning more than a teacher's starting salary. In the future I may think about a different career.''

Simon McMillan, a student primary teacher at St Andrews College in Glasgow, said: ''My brother is doing mechanical engineering and his starting salary will be #35,000.

''but money has never been the motivating factor in my career. My mother is a secondary school teacher and I have an aunt and an uncle who are both teachers so I have grown-up in an education-oriented family.

''I had a teacher at primary school who helped diagnose that I was partially dyslexic which showed me how a dedicated teacher can help others. When I looked back on that I thought it was really special, and I began to think teaching was something I would like to do.''

Tom Finnigan, a senior lecturer in education at the University of Paisley, said: ''By the time students have done a degree and a post-graduate qualification, many of their friends have gone into industry and manufacturing with a better starting salary.

''By the time they have family and mortgage responsibilities that really starts to have an effect.''

''As a profession we are not selling ourselves very well. Student teachers going on placement to a school often see there is a low morale and they decided it is not somewhere they want to work.

''If they were going into an environment where the staff were happy and and looked like they were enjoying what they were doing then there would be less of a problem.

Tino Ferri, of the national Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers, said: ''It's difficult for teachers to remain dedicated when the financial reality begins to bite. The exuberance and ebullience of youth only lasts until they are faced with mortgage and family commitments.

''After 10 years' service to the profession I reckon #27,000 is not an unreasonable wage. That's a fair return if they have proved themselves as expert practitioners.

''Our salaries, compared with other professions, have dropped by 50% in real terms over the past 20 years.''