Government committee hears how bursaries can address teaching recruitment and retention

Amidst predictions that teacher recruitment is set to decline even further this year, Dr Green said that funding is an important element to consider. He particularly asked the committee to consider the travel costs to placements, which manifest as a ‘significant cost for students,’ on top of course fees and the current cost-of-living crisis. 

Some subject programmes offer bursaries as high as £27,000, but Dr Green suggested spreading these out over several subjects instead. This could reduce barriers to accessing courses and encourage applications to a much wider range of subjects, for example, music and religious education.

While ITE providers have been told to reject fewer applicants in the hopes of boosting trainee numbers, Dr Green emphasised that the situation will only worsen if programmes lower their requirements. Providers must ‘maintain the gates to the profession’ and focus on quality over quantity. With immense pressure on the sector, ‘inappropriate’ admission will only risk issues in the long term and bring about high withdrawal rates.

Dr Green said what is important is to focus on both recruitment and retention – supporting students in their initial training year and beyond, in years one and two of their early career induction programme. The danger in these declining rates is that teacher exits create a domino effect on the quality of placements – potentially impeding ITE providers’ ability to find mentors for student teachers.

Dr Green was a part of a panel that spoke to the Education Committee at the House of Commons on 11 July 2023. The panel aimed to provide evidence and guide the government in addressing the teacher recruitment crisis.

He is the Head of ITE and an Associate Professor (Teaching), where he leads IOE’s ITE provision across early years, primary, secondary (18 subjects) and further education. He began his career as a secondary school science teacher and has held various leadership roles in education. Before joining IOE, he was one of His Majesty's Inspectors (HMI) and led Ofsted’s work on the science research review and subject report.

Dr Green’s research interests are in the field of science education. He is author of ‘Powerful ideas of science and how to teach them’ and founder of ‘the science teacher’ – an online platform that provides science teachers globally with free resources and ideas to teach the big ideas of science.

Links

• Watch the recording of the Education Committee hearing
• Can bursaries address the teacher crisis?
• Dr Jasper Green’s research profile
• Initial Teacher Education (ITE) at UCL IOE

• Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment

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Parliament TV live stream, Education Committee, House of Commons, 11 July 2023.