Local Teachers for Local Schools, No More

Pete Draper's picture
 3
With the announcement of the removal of bursaries for teacher training in many secondary subjects and for primary trainees and the removal of 'golden hellos' for all trainees, there is a distinct possibility that some areas of England will see a (further) decline in local teachers.

Many prospective trainees will be disincentivised for teacher training if they expected training bursaries from their research into teaching before this week. Some parts of the country and many local authorities in the south east, already find it a challenge to recruit to teaching. This situation will be exacerbated by the announcement this week that Michael Gove does not value financial support for trainee teachers. It is not so much the principle of payments to trainees that is the questionable factor here, but more the fact that teaching pays so modestly in your early years as a teacher that this amounts to a real drop in standard of living for trainees from September 2011. Even in the shortage subjects of maths, physics and chemistry, £9k less the tuition fee of £3375 does not leave much to live on for a year, especially in the South East.

Many areas of the country will find it difficult to attract affordable newly qualified teachers for September 2012. Where they can NQTs will migrate to the lower cost of living areas and regions. Frozen salary scales will make teaching a less affordable option than in recent years for those in the higher cost of living areas. Are we heading towards a compound crisis in teacher recruitment?
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Comments

Shane Rae's picture
Thu, 24/02/2011 - 12:23

I'm with you Pete, on the fear of the withdrawl of the golden hello- which we all knew was a badly needed measure in times when attracting quality undergrads into teaching was getting desperate.

But as far as schools attracting teachers are concerned the situation hasn't changed in a generation. NQTs prefer to either work close to home or in a 'desirable' location. The last choice would be somewhere expensive. This is nothing new.

The problem is that schools have never had the freedom/cash to offer proper incentives-like they do any any other profession. It doesn't matter how badly you want a particular teacher you can't attract them with salary.

Francis Gilbert's picture
Thu, 24/02/2011 - 15:34

It's yet another step towards a real two tier situation, with Academies better financed and freer to set the salaries they need to, while local schools are under-resourced. I think the aim is to starve LA schools and teacher-training universities of cash, and make the favoured Academies and Free Schools cash-rich, able to recruit the best science and maths teachers with real salary incentives.


Amanda Thresh's picture
Wed, 21/09/2011 - 14:05

I would love to train as a teacher, I already hold a degree in Environmental Management so would be looking towards the science subjects but would need to be employed whilst training as I am a single parent with 4 children. I work in a very low paid job at the moment and there is nothing out there for the more mature students to be able to get a foothold into something better!


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