Trainee primary teachers bursaries due to be cut
It has been reported that bursaries for trainee primary teachers across England will be cut from next year. This announcement has created a storm within the education sector, fearing that it could lead to a teacher recruitment crisis.
With suggestions from TES that these plans could affect more then 50% of trainee teachers in the primary education sector, bursaries will be one third of the value for new starters in 2016.
The department for Education shows bursary funding for primary teacher trainees will fall by £6,000 for first-class degrees or PhDs, £1,000 for trainees teachers with a 2:1 degree and by £6,000 for trainees holding a 2:2 and lower.
The knock on effect of this within the sector could be detrimental, with TES figures showing that nearly 50% of trainees starting in 2014 received a bursary.
Lizana Oberholzer from the National Association of School Based Teacher Training comments: “The reduction of bursaries could mean it is not attractive for people to train to teach”
“We are worried we won’t be able to recruit high quality teacher trainees without the incentive of high value bursaries in future.”