We do not know if Ministers choked over the Danish pastries and croissants with creme fraiche during their breakfast meeting with

representatives of Scotland's secondary head-teachers yesterday. Several issues were discussed but one in particular must have given Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar and Education Minister Brian Wilson food for thought: the recruitment of graduates into teaching, particularly in the secondary sector. There is evidence of a reduction of between 20% and 30% in the level of applications for the one-year post-

graduate courses dedicated mainly to the training of secondary teachers which begin in the autumn. This can be explained in part by the reluctance of university graduates to commit themselves to another year of study, and another year of debt, with no guarantee of a permanent job at the end of it. Most, in fact, end up becoming supply teachers on short-term contracts and have to wait several years for a permanent post.

In times of economic stagnation or downturn such concerns are set aside thanks to the lack of alternative job opportunities, but when times are good other non-teaching careers beckon, even for arts graduates, and when graduates are in demand they can command higher salaries than in teaching's strictly-defined pay structures. In other words, they vote with their feet and avoid a career (teaching) which they see as uncertain and, in relative terms, unrewarding. Ministers believe a reduction in the number of promoted posts in the secondary sector will free money to reward the dedicated classroom teacher, something which has been tried in the past but has failed. We wish this latest effort well, but it does not address the fundamental problem, and one which seems to be worsening with each passing year: how to attract a proportionate share of the best graduates into a profession whose salary levels

lag behind those in industry. And this potential crisis is looming at a time when teaching is hardly selling itself in the jobs market as a dynamic, rewarding career.

Such are the concerns over resources and extra assessment paperwork that a boycott of the Higher Still reform of upper secondary schooling is threatened.

The complacent might argue that there will still be more applicants than teacher-training places, but when there are fewer applicants quality suffers. To make matters worse, the higher-education funding body is planning for an increase in teacher recruitment to meet demand in the priority secondary-sector subjects which include computing, English, maths, modern languages, physics, and technological education. Yet graduates in many of these subjects are coveted by industry and its greater pulling power. Current trends suggest that, for many of the best graduates, education will simply not be at the races. That is a worryingly sad state of affairs which will put our teacher-training institutions under even greater financial pressure to survive in their present form. And what are parents and pupils to think if teaching is to be seen as a second-class career which attracts only those who fail

the industry interview test? It is something Mr Blair should think long and hard about. His triumphalist ''education, education, education'' mantra is sounding more hollow, hollow, hollow by the day.