Ivan Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to increase teacher recruitment in schools.

Nick Gibb

Ensuring there are high quality teachers in all schools is crucial to achieving our ambition of educational excellence everywhere. That is why the Government is investing over £1.3 billion to 2020 to attract new teachers into the profession. Our investment includes tax-free training bursaries worth up to £30,000 for top graduates in priority subjects in addition to grants to support new teachers who want to earn a salary whilst they train.

We are continuing to support the expansion of the prestigious Teach First scheme which is now Britain’s largest graduate employer, and places top graduates in schools in disadvantaged areas.

We are also offering training and support to former teachers to help them return to the classroom and have launched the National Teaching Service, which will place up to 1,500 outstanding teachers and middle leaders into the schools who need them most.

To ensure that schools can play a leading role in selecting and training the teachers that they need, we have significantly expanded school-based routes into teaching so that over 50 per cent of trainees are now training through school-led programmes.

Teaching continues to be a hugely popular career for top graduates and career changers, and we now have more, better-qualified teachers in our classrooms than ever before.