NASUWT comments on teacher training bursary for veterans

Commenting on the announcement by the DfE of a new bursary to encourage ex-service personnel to retrain as teachers, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said:

“Former members of the armed services can have a very valuable contribution to make to education system, as can people from a wide range of occupational backgrounds. 

“However, the evidence that incentive schemes of this type, regardless of the group at which they are targeted, are effective are mixed at best and it is therefore disappointing that the Government continues to place so much emphasis on them. Any difference they do make is at the margins at best.

“The Government must accept that the only way in which the teacher supply crisis will be addressed on a sustainable basis is through action to tackle its fundamental causes, particularly those related to teachers’ excessive workloads as well as the increasingly uncompetitive nature of their pay and other key terms and conditions of employment.”