Mr Johnson wants to see more teachers from ethnic minorities

He has asked the TDA teacher training agency to "look creatively" at how it can attract high quality teachers to deprived areas to boost results there.

Mr Johnson also wants to see more men working in primary schools and more trainees from the ethnic minorities.

The TDA said it was looking at how it could address the issues raised.

Ensuring that schools serving areas of high disadvantage have good quality teachers will be critical Alan Johnson

A spokeswoman said "golden hellos" may be possible but were not currently under formal consideration.

The comments came in Mr Johnson's letter to the head of England's Training and Development Agency for Schools, Graham Holley.

He was setting out his priorities for how the TDA should spend the �770m in government funding for this year.

He said: "Ensuring that schools serving areas of high disadvantage have good quality teachers will be critical if we are to make progress on narrowing the social class achievement gap.

"I want the agency to look creatively at how best it can use the resources and levers at its disposal to make progress in this area.

"This might include (but not be limited to) consideration of more targeted use of incentives such as golden hellos."

Modernising schools

Currently maths and science teachers are offered "golden hellos" worth �5,000 because of a national shortage.

And schools and local authorities have greater flexibility to offer financial incentives to recruit and retain head teachers.

The education secretary also called for improved gender balance in primary schools, where far more women are employed than men.

He urged the TDA to increase its target for recruiting teachers from black and ethnic minority backgrounds to 12% from 10.5%.

The government cash was also to be used for language teachers in primary schools and science and maths teachers in secondary schools.

Mr Holley said: "In response to the Secretary of State's letter, the TDA has shifted its focus from increasing the quantity of teachers in England, to ensuring the whole school workforce has the skills and tools to deliver a curriculum that is relevant to pupils now and in the future.

"The TDA aims to attract the right numbers of teachers and train them to high standards."

He added that the grant ensured the TDA would be able to fully support the drive to modernise schools as well as allocate more money towards recruiting teachers in key areas and improving their training.

Of the �770m, the TDA intends to spend �590m on initial teacher training and some �64m to support the development of extended services in schools.