January 28, 2019
This story by Samantha Twiselton in Tes on 28th January 2019.
New strategy might be a game-changer – if educationalists at every level get behind it, writes Professor Sam Twiselton.
Saving the teaching profession? It sounds dramatic, but it’s no exaggeration about how I feel about the stand-out feature of the Department for Education Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, published today.
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What a ridiculous statement!
Whilst there are very few people that would argue against a better ECF than the current model – the idea that telling people they wont be fully qualified for an extra year and that will be a panacea is fanciful, in my opinion.
The crisis in recruitment and retention is complex and one isolated solution will not ‘save the profession’ – however if I were to suggest one thing that stops good candidates turning into trainees it is the £9,000+ tuition fee and the lack of a base bursary for all trainees regardless of subject.
If we were to have no tuition fee, all trainees were guaranteed a minimum of £10,000 bursary and those in shortage subjects maybe got a little more – combined with the roll-out of the 3 & 5 year retention payments to all subjects and you may go some way to ‘saving’ the profession – to some degree.
We are largely very positive about the Strategy and the ECF as it responds to a number of changes we have been calling for – not least a focus on quality mentoring and early career development. I think it is important we continue to put out the message that this is about entitlement to support and not an additional burden for new teachers.
That being said, I quite agree that the issue is a complex one and tuition fees and bursary payment are most certainly on our agenda. The good news is that these are tentatively back on the table for discussion – we will persevere! Watch this space…