Bursary cuts ‘risk primary teacher numbers’

According to calculations conducted by the Times Educational Supplement (TES), the changes in pay could affect the pay of over half of trainee primary teachers.

The government maintains that the bursaries are targeted at the areas most in need. However, figures show that some of the bursaries available this year will be two thirds less in value for trainees beginning their training in 2016.

The Department for Education’s (DfE) funding opportunities available to trainee teachers for the year 2016-17, reveal that bursaries for primary school teacher trainees with first class degrees or PhDs will fall significantly from £9,000 to £3,000. Furthermore, bursaries for primary trainees with 2:1 degrees or master’s qualifications will fall from £4,000 to £3,000 in 2016.

Planned cuts also include primary maths trainees with 2:2 degrees and upwards, who will see a reduction in the currently offered £12,000 bursary to £6,000. Those trainees with degrees lower than a 2:2 will be offered a bursary of £3,000 down from £9,000.

TES analysis shows that nearly half of primary schools teacher trainees who began their courses in September 2014, around 8,900, received a bursary.

Teaching workforce expert Professor John Howson described the cuts to bursaries as ‘very risky’ and claimed that changes could result in a ‘yo-yo effect’ which risks ‘creating a crisis in primary where there isn’t one’.

The bursaries are often used to subsidise living expenses, or most likely to offset some of the £9,000 tuition fees for trainee teachers on university courses. Bursaries can be paid to trainees on both university and school based training schemes that do not carry a salary.

Lizana Oberholzer of the National Association of School Based Teacher Trainers said: "The reduction of bursaries could mean it is not attractive for people to train to teach.”

Oberholzer continued to warn that although national figures indicate there are enough primary teachers this year, they often hide local shortages, in areas such as Oxforshire and Buckinghamshire where she is based.

Oberholzer added: “We are worried we won't be able to recruit high quality teacher trainees without the incentive of high value bursaries in the future.”

A DfE spokesman argued the number and quality of teachers was ‘at an all time high’ and that the government still intends to continue attracting the most talented people to the profession.

The spokesman said: "Our generous bursary system is reviewed on an annual basis to ensure it is targeted at those areas which are most in need.

"We have exceeded our recruitment target for primary teachers and thanks to our wider reforms are confident we will continue to attract top-quality candidates to this area."

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