The government has announced an increase in tax-free cash bursaries and scholarships for trainee teachers as part of plans to ‘recruit and retain top talent.‘
Schools Minister Jonathan Gullis said that ‘investing in our teachers is investing in young people’ and is hopeful that the additional funding will attract ‘the brightest and best’ into teaching.
Government announces increase in teacher training bursaries
Trainees in the highest-priority STEM subjects, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing, will be eligible for bursaries worth £27,000 and scholarships worth £29,000 when starting their training in September 2023.
Furthermore, prospective language teachers have seen an increase of £10,000, and will now be offered £25,000 bursaries and £27,000 scholarships.
Increases in funding have been seen across a range of subjects, such as in geography where trainee teachers will receive £25,000 bursaries, biology and design and technology teachers will be offered £20,000 bursaries.
Gullis said: ‘Shoring up the talent pipeline to teach vital subject areas such as STEM and languages will, in turn, equip young people with the knowledge and skills they need to secure a bright future, and ensure that our economy remains globally competitive.‘
The funding, which is part of broader work to raise the profile of teaching, is worth £181 million in total, which shows a huge rise of £52 million from the current academic year.
Backlash over lack of music teacher support
The International Society of Musicians (ISM), the UK’s professional body for musicians, posted a statement on Twitter reacting to the news. They said that they were ‘disappointed’ to see music teachers ‘excluded’ from the teaching bursary scheme and urged the government to reconsider their decision.
Frustration over the lack of bursaries for music teachers was shared by others online, and one person tweeted: ‘No training bursary for music again – so short sighted given the huge shortfall of music teachers.’
Another spoke about their experience as a teacher and said that they would not have been able to afford teacher training without a bursary.
They told followers: ‘Well-intentioned music education policy won’t work unless value is placed on an emerging workforce who are (and feel like they are) being taken seriously.’
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