£3k offer to teachers ‘a kind of U-turn’
BORIS Johnson has announced a new “levelling up premium” worth up to £3,000 to encourage talented maths and science teachers to work in areas of the country where they are needed most.
But education experts said the plan – the only new policy the Prime Minister announced in his conference speech yesterday – is effectively bringing back a previously scrapped scheme.
Mr Johnson announced the £60 million scheme to attract teachers to work in more challenging areas during his set-piece address and said it would be used to “send the best maths and science teachers to the places that need them most”.
Teachers in the first five years of their careers will be able to get the salary boost to teach maths, physics, chemistry and computing in a bid to support the recruitment and retention of teachers in such subjects.
The premium will cost £60 million over three years and come from new funding, Downing Street said.
The Education Policy Institute said it is effectively a return to the early career payments for teachers, which were up to £5,000, until the scheme was “abandoned”.
Sam Freedman, a former adviser at the Department for Education, told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One: “It is a policy that existed, was introduced in 2018, lasted a couple of years and then was scrapped.
“So this is actually a kind of U-turn and they are bringing it back in a slightly tweaked form, which is certainly welcome because we have a serious recruitment problem and retention problem with teachers that this may do a small amount to help with, but it is not a new policy.”
Mr Johnson said: “We can do it. There is absolutely no reason why the kids of this country should lag behind and why so many should be unable to read or write or do basic mathematics at 11.”