The Department for Education has announced the money which will be used to fund scholarships, bursaries and salary grants in a bid to support “thousands of candidates” through their initial teacher training (see DfE, 2023 for full details).
It includes a move to bring scholarships for those training to teach mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing up to £30,000 tax-free. There will also be scholarships for French, German and Spanish worth £27,000.
For 2024/25, the number of post-graduate bursaries on offer has increased to cover 12 subjects:
- £28,000 in chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics
- £25,000 in biology, design and technology, geography and languages (including ancient languages)
- £10,000 in art and design, English, music and RE
There are also under-graduate bursaries worth £9,000 on offer for those studying QTS courses starting in 2024/25 in maths, physics, computing, or languages.
The education secretary Gillian Keegan said that the bursaries “give trainee teachers even more choice and support to help them start their journey into the classroom”.
However, the funding for teacher recruitment incentives comes against a backdrop of high teacher attrition rates and historical under-recruitment, especially at secondary level.
A year ago, the DfE’s annual ITT census revealed notable shortfalls in recruitment for 2022/23 in computing, design and technology, geography, MFL, and physics at secondary level. Overall, 12,356 secondary teachers were recruited to ITT against a target of 20,945 (59%).
And in March, the NFER’s on-going teacher workforce research warned that nine secondary subjects are on track to be 20% or more below their recruitment target for 2023/24 – physics, computing, design and technology, business studies, modern foreign languages, religious education, music, drama, and art and design.
On top of this, DfE data earlier this year revealed that 39,390 teachers quit teaching for reasons other than retirement in 2021/22 – this is 8.8% of the workforce and the highest number since records began.
Responding to the announcement, Ian Hartwright, head of policy at the National Association of Head Teachers, said that more must be done tackle poor teacher retention.
“These proposals follow a well-worn path which has failed to deliver and by focusing so heavily on recruitment the government isn’t doing nearly enough address the similarly concerning crisis in retention of teachers and school leaders.
“It’s like filling a bath without a plug to keep the water in. Almost 44,000 teachers left the profession last year and retention rates for new recruits after their first year teaching actually fell. While the government points to record numbers of teachers in schools, it fails to mention that the number of pupils in state funded schools in England has risen by almost double the rate of the teaching workforce.
“Without a far more ambitious and comprehensive approach from the government, school leaders will continue to struggle to ensure all children have the teachers they need to flourish.
“It’s vital the government’s refreshed recruitment and retention strategy includes tangible measures to tackle the route causes of this crisis, including not only unsustainable levels of workload, but also the damaging impact of Ofsted inspections and the real-terms pay cuts inflicted on the profession over the last decade.”
- DfE: Funding: initial teacher training (ITT), academic year 2024/25, October 2023: https://tinyurl.com/3aptydsa