Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2018 to Question 197426 on Teachers: Qualifications, what steps he is taking to ensure that more teachers of religious education have a relevant post A-level qualification in that subject.

The Government is committed to supporting schools in recruiting well qualified teachers in religious education (RE), although the responsibility for making recruitment decisions rightly rests with schools, including what specialist qualifications and experience individual teachers are expected to hold.

To support recruitment efforts for postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) courses the Department is offering a £9,000 bursary for all RE trainees with at least a 2:2 degree classification, starting in 2019/20.

RE ITT applicants are also now eligible for one to one support from our expert Teacher Training Advisers, to guide them through their journey into teaching. They can access this support by registering with Get into Teaching.