Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on levels of teacher recruitment of the withdrawal of teaching bursaries for arts, English and humanities subjects.

The Department reviews the bursaries that we offer for initial teacher training (ITT) before the start of the annual recruitment cycle. In doing this, we take account of a number of factors including forecast economic performance, the number of graduates, and teacher supply need in each subject. Being able to change bursary amounts gives us the flexibility to respond to the need to attract new teachers and means we are spending money where it is needed most.

In academic year 2019/20 we exceeded the postgraduate ITT targets in history (127 per cent of target), geography (119 per cent of target) and English (110 per cent of target). Final recruitment figures for 2020/21 are not yet available but between February and September this year there has been a 32 per cent increase in applications for those looking to enter the classroom compared to the equivalent period last year: https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/ucas-teacher-training-statistical-releases.

Teaching remains an attractive proposition for all graduates, including those in arts, English and humanities subjects. As a result, we have decided to focus the bursaries we are offering for academic year 2021/22 on subjects where we expect it will be hardest to attract sufficient applicants.