Bursary for trainee teachers is cut from £26k to £10k

Over the last few years there has been a drive to encourage more people to train as teachers, especially in shortage subjects.

It was this initiative that led to the National School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) courses in maths, and physics and modern languages.

Dulwich College welcomed the opportunity to become the London hub from the outset as we were taken by having courses that focus on developing teachers in specific subjects and also the scheme’s link between state and independent schools.

The scheme has grown into several hubs around the country with each responsible for recruiting, training, placing and supporting teacher trainers around their local area.

Currently Dulwich is training 18 modern languages, seven maths and five physics trainees.

We have been really pleased that previous cohorts have not only been employed at their placement schools, but most have remained locally. It’s also notable that far more trainees are employed in state schools than in independent schools.

This course has the feel of supporting the local community with excellent teachers, but also getting those teachers to the places that need them. It is, therefore, worrying to hear that the bursary for trainee teachers in modern languages has been cut from £26,000 to £10,000.

This will have a profound impact on the number of teachers that will be able to train across the country. Indeed, many of our trainees are career changers and the original bursary was enough to keep them going for a year whilst they trained.

The new bursary will have a hugely negative impact on those coming into the profession and to those coming into the London hub.

Dr Joe Spence The Master, Dulwich College