Yesterday, the government announced the bursaries for trainee graduate teachers and support for school training through the Post Graduate Apprenticeship route (PGTA). As might be expected, the subjects covered by these inducements to train as a teacher are mostly STEM subjects, plus some other subjects, but not the arts and humanities subjects, except for geography for some reason.
| Subject | Bursary | Scholarship |
| Biology | £5,000 | |
| Chemistry | £29,000 | £31,000 |
| Computing | £29,000 | £31,000 |
| Design and technology | £20,000 | |
| Geography | £5,000 | |
| Languages | £20,000 | £22,000 |
| (French, German and Spanish only) | ||
| Languages | £20,000 | |
| (all other languages, including ancient languages) | ||
| Maths | £29,000 | |
| Physics | £29,000 | £31,000 |
Teacher training bursaries | Get Into Teaching GOV.UK
The bursaries are paid for by the government, and the scholarships mostly by the subject associations. While I can understand the government’s desire to increase training numbers up to target in these subjects, the list does raise two important questions about what seems like a continuation of the policy of the previous Conservative government.
Firstly, are these now the subjects where targets will not be met in 2025 when the ITT census is published in December. If there are other subjects not likely to meet their ITT target, why are they not included in the list?
I produced this table for an earlier blog, but it is worth repeating here.
| Subject | Target2025/26 | % increase Sept on June | accepted Sept 25 | over/under target |
| Total Secondary | 19,270 | 26% | 16843 | -2,427 |
| Primary | 7,650 | 34% | 9880 | 2,230 |
| Chemistry | 730 | 49% | 909 | 179 |
| Biology | 985 | 36% | 1397 | 412 |
| Mathematics | 2,300 | 35% | 2617 | 317 |
| Design & Technology | 965 | 33% | 678 | -287 |
| Art & Design | 680 | 33% | 902 | 222 |
| Geography | 935 | 33% | 981 | 46 |
| Classics | 60 | 32% | 42 | -18 |
| English | 1,950 | 31% | 1760 | -190 |
| Drama | 620 | 30% | 273 | -347 |
| Business Studies | 900 | 29% | 235 | -665 |
| Music | 565 | 28% | 343 | -222 |
| Religious Education | 780 | 28% | 418 | -362 |
| Others | 2,520 | 25% | 360 | -2,160 |
| History | 790 | 23% | 936 | 146 |
| Modern Languages | 1,460 | 21% | 1428 | -32 |
| Physics | 1,410 | 19% | 1313 | -97 |
| Physical Education | 725 | 17% | 1491 | 766 |
| Computing | 895 | 5% | 761 | -134 |
Why are subjects such business studies – a perennial ITT target failure – and music and religious education not included in the bursary list? Does a Labour government not believe these subjects are worth supporting?
The second issue is around whether there will be the jobs available for trainees recruited into training in September 2026, and entering the labour market in September 2027, if on a traditional course. The more the PGTA route is funded, the fewer advertised vacancies there may be if the schools convert PGTA trainees into qualified teachers doing the same job.
The government announcement contains no discussion about the labour market for teachers, and whether ITT trainees, faced with a secondary sector where pupil numbers will be at best flat, and at worst in decline, if the decline in the birthrate together with government policies on immigration or even the threat of them help to reduce the secondary school population.
From my perspective, this announcement like a sloppy piece of work by the DfE, in what could be a rapidly changing labour market, if the intention is to ensure all subjects receive sufficient new entrants into the labour market in 2026.
However, if there is a rapid decline in graduate level entry posts as a result of AI, then the government’s stance may be vindicated, even if says nothing about equality of opportunity.
John Howson 