Money shouldn't be the incentive... bring in equal bursaries!

'When you consider teacher training to fulfil a life-long dream of teaching, or a life-long want to make a change to young peoples' lives, it shouldn't be financial difficulties that stop you doing so. Ask yourself, should it be a £26,000 bursary that persuades you to enter the challenging career of teaching? This blogs discusses the financial benefits and strains of teacher training, and questions whether money should be the overbearing factor when making such an important career choice. Let's not make money the incentive. Let's make our passion for our subject, our enthusiasm to make a difference to the world we live in and our love and care for young people the reason why we train to teach'.

Image found at https://www.wisbar.org/NewsPublications/

Everyone you talk to about teaching says entering the career is not a decision to be taken lightly. It involves a LOT of hours of work, extreme highs and lows, and presents a lot of repsonsibilities and challenges. For some of us we've never dreamt of doing anything else, believing its the career made for us. This was me. This was me since the small age of 3. However, at three years old, I had no idea that the financial strain I would struggle might stop me from teaching altogether!

Currently, the bursaries recieved for subjects in the curriculums massively differ - from Geography trainees recieving a rather attactive £26,000 to Drama and Music (and other subjects) trainees recieving nothing. It begs the question of why? Why are certain subjects deemed so much more important that others? How can this £26,000 gap be justified? What can Geography offer that art cannot? What can English offer that is so much more pivotal to a young person that Music or Art? It may be suggested that due to factors such as the employment rate of teachers in individual subjects, government push for academia, national GCSE uptake data, etc. that subjects should differ regarding financial support, but is such a substantial difference necessary?

Find this table at GOV.UK for the most recently published Teacher Training bursary payments.

Teacher training can be one of the most tiring and stressful years of study. Alongside this, many subjects recieve little to no bursary, adding to the negatives of the training year. Whilst people may say money isn't everything - and I agree - when you can't by play script that you need for a particular lesson or scheme of work, or materials to experiment with, or afford to print your lesson plans, they may think twice. Many of my trainee friends also had to move back into their parent's homes, not being able to afford their own accomodation. Lucy D (@MissDDrama) recently commented on the inconsistency of bursaries saying she "felt upset when some trainees were turning up in new cars (paid for by bursaries) but love[s] [her] subject and just kept thinking about getting [her] QTS". She wisley summarises the important discussion by saying "I think it [bursaries] can shape people's perceptions of how important a subject is - that's really frustrating". If I had recieved a large bursary alongside the standard maintenance loan from Student Finance for my training year, I could have processed a mortgage! But the reality was much different.

We must ask if these large amounts of money make the 'best' teachers. Money doesn't make a great teacher. Determination, enthusiasm and passion amongst many other things make for a great teacher. An outstanding offer of £26,000 could be considered a strong incentive for someone looking for a career change. Meanwhile, some people are dropping out of training purely due to the financial impossibility of surviving that year. Alex Cross (@AlexanderCross1), a colleague of mine who recieved the maximum bursary for Geography agrees with this saying that although he agrees with individualised payments for each subject "[the gaps] should be smaller and each subject should get a minimum amount [...] a £26,000 gap is really unfair!". Furthermore, Ollie, who also qualified in Secondary Geography said "All subjects need to equal to what an NQT would earn in their first year". This comes with an interesting point that the trainees that recieve £26,000 for their trainng year often (depending on their area of work for their NQT year) actually recieved a pay cut, despite now being fully qualified for the role rather than in training! A great colleague of mine in Modern Foreign Languages echoed this statement by commenting "As an MFL NQT I was eligable for a great bursary in my training and now my salary is nearly half of that amount!".

I don't know what the answer is but I know I think the differences are way too large. It can't be right that some trainees are moving back in with their parents, struggling to buy resources and even in some cases quitting courses, whilst others can live independently, buy new cars and experience much less financial strain if any at all. The money can of course help as Toila states - "I think the bursary helped me to settle down, buy resources, keep myself motivated and it is what every teacher should get" but unfortunately it is not. With the future of young people in the hands of these trainee teachers, lets not make money the incentive. Let's make their passion for their subject, their enthusiasm to make a difference to the world we live in and their love and care for young people the reason they train to teach! Let's make all of the above the reason why we stand at the front of our classrooms each day and educate the next generation!

Thank you so much for reading this week's blog! As you can tell it's a area I passionately believe in, having struggled through a financially challenging training year myself but still becoming the teacher I am today. And trust me, when you haven't had a bursary, you're first pay check makes you feel like you've won the lottery! So maybe it's not all bad!

Big thanks to Lucy, Toila, Alex and Ollie for their comments to illustrate this article.

Miss B :)