Teacher’s will be given levelling up premiums of up to £3000 per
teacher, to improve teacher quality and support disadvantaged
children, the Prime Minister has announced today.
Based on rigorous research, these premiums will help with
recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in shortage
subjects, in the schools and areas that need them most.
Covid has caused major disruption to the education system,
meaning disadvantaged schools are more likely to face teacher
supply and retention issues – which in turn can undermine
teaching quality and affect pupils who are already struggling.
That is why the Government will target teachers in years 1 to 5
(early career teachers) in four core subjects facing the greatest
supply challenges (maths, physics, chemistry and computing).
Levelling up premiums will help to address teacher supply
challenges and improve teacher quality through retaining teachers
who have gained those valuable first years of experience in the
classroom.
Conservatives in government have already invested more than £250
million to turbo-charge teacher training and development and are
providing 500,000 teacher training opportunities.
This means that we are providing world-leading training
appropriate for all teachers, from those new to the profession
through to headteachers.
Driven by a commitment to fairness, rigorous standards and making
sure that every child is given the opportunity to fulfil their
full potential, we will continue to support teachers across the
country in their mission to deliver the best possible start in
life for the next generation.
We have made teacher training and development a crucial pillar of
our wider education recovery plan. Overall, there are 20,000 more
teachers working in schools across the nation than in 2010.
Levelling up premiums will build on this progress, addressing the
under-supply of teachers in high-demand subjects.
Education Secretary said:
“Our new levelling up premiums of up to £3,000 per teacher will
support the recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in
shortage subjects and in the schools and areas that need them
most.
“We know that more than one in ten teachers from the most
disadvantaged secondary schools leave to teach in other schools
and we are determined to correct that by ensuring a competitive
financial offer for teachers to drive up quality: levelling up
opportunity with targeted investment.”
“Levelling up premiums will make a real difference to schools
across the country as we build back better from the pandemic.”
Notes to Editors
Conservative record
· We have already invested more than £250 million to turbo-charge
teacher training and development and are providing 500,000
teacher training opportunities.
· This means that we are providing world-leading training
appropriate for all teachers, to those new to the profession to
headteachers. This will ensure children are supported by
world-leading teachers.
· To continue to support schools we have made teacher training
and development a crucial pillar of our wider education recovery
plan.
· Overall, there are 20,000 more teachers working in schools
across the nation than in 2010[1].
Labour’s record
· Labour are playing politics with education, not focused on
supporting teachers and improving standards – Labour Shadow
Education Minister, , described the pandemic as a ‘good crisis’ which Labour
could exploit. ‘I think there’s obviously a real immediate
pressure to address these funding needs for the crisis. But I
think we should use the opportunity, don’t let a good crisis go
to waste’.[2]
· said that she was under orders from Labour not to
generate policy, but instead to ‘attack the Tories’. She is
reported to have told a Labour conference that she was advised by
a fellow frontbencher: ‘Kate, your job is not to generate policy,
it’s to get out there and attack the Tories’.[3]
· failed to say how Labour would fund their £14.7 billion
education recovery plan, proving they have no plan to safeguard
our children’s education. ‘The government itself, quite rightly,
has set aside a reserve for COVID related expenditure. So what
we're talking about is, how do we use that money well, and I
would say that investing in our
