§ Mr. JenkinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the additional financial support offered to trainee teachers since 1997. [136432]
§ Mr. MilibandSince 1998, full tuition fee remission has been available to most postgraduate trainee teachers in England. In 1999, the Government announced a706W further package of support which consisted of a payment of £2,500 for people taking Postgraduate Certificate in Education courses in mathematics and science and a further £2,500 payable on appointment to a relevant post in the same subjects.
These payments were superseded in September 2000 when the Government introduced £6,000 training bursaries for eligible postgraduate trainee teachers and £4,000 Golden Hellos for those going on to teach one of five priority subjects in a maintained school in England. These incentives have been reinforced by the Repayment of Teachers' Loans pilot scheme, introduced in September 2002 for new teachers of priority subjects.
These measures have contributed to an increase of over 5,000 in the number of recruits to courses of Initial Teacher Training between 1998/99 and 2002/03.