Incentives for specialist teacher recruits announced

It is hoped that offering bursaries worth up to £31,000 will improve the number of teachers with subject expertise.

In a bid to increase the number of specialist teachers in key shortage subjects in schools and further education (FE), the UK government will offer bursaries and scholarships worth up to £31,000, tax free. The subjects include chemistry, maths, physics, and computing.

The move is intended to ensure more students are taught by subject specialist teachers, rather than by non-specialists.

Incentives

In addition, under the new package:

For FE lecturer trainees, the same level of support is available in key STEM subjects.
Bursaries of £15,000 are available for SEND-specialist trainees.
For trainee English teachers, £10,000 is available.
Schools recruiting apprentices in maths, chemistry, physics, and computing can receive up to £29,000 to cover training costs
For modern foreign languages apprentices, the support is £20,000. (Apprentices will earn a salary while training and pay nothing for their training.)
The Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship (PGTA) route is being further developed. It has already seen a 55 per cent rise in uptake, and from now on will receive funding equivalent to the teacher training incentives across all subjects.

The government says that this is part of its broader “Plan for Change,” and that it is already seeing progress. Student attendance has increased (over five million fewer absence days this year compared to last), and teacher recruitment and retention have improved, with 2,300 more teachers in secondary and special schools than last year, it says.

Too many non-specialist teachers

A significant driver for this policy is data showing that, over the past year, more than 10% of maths lessons were taught by non-specialists and only 72.2% of physics lessons were delivered by teachers with a relevant post-A-level qualification.

Read the full post at GOV.UK