Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his policy to encourage more former military personnel into the teaching profession.

The Department announced a new ‘Troops to Teachers’ bursary of £40,000 in March 2018 which will be available from September 2018. This builds on the success of the former ‘Troops to Teachers’ programme which has helped 106 people become qualified teachers so far. Feedback from placement schools on the original ‘Troops to Teachers’ programme in England indicates that graduates are highly regarded, capable teachers who will make a valuable contribution to the profession. The Department will assess the effectiveness of the new bursary once evidence has been received from the uptake in the autumn 2018.