Religion: Teachers
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consideration she has given to reinstating the Religious Education Initial Teacher Training bursary for 2026/2027 and future years.
Answered by Georgia Gould
Initial teacher training (ITT) bursaries are offered to incentivise more applications to ITT courses. As such, we review bursaries annually to take account of recruitment to date, forecast economic conditions, and assess teacher need in each subject. The purpose of the scheme is to target resources to where the evidence shows need is highest.
Between the 2023/24 and 2025/26 academic years, postgraduate ITT recruitment increased by 71% in religious education (RE). Partly due to this improved recruitment and higher retention of existing teachers, the need for new postgraduate RE trainee teachers has reduced for the 2026/27 academic year.
Our ‘Get Into Teaching’ marketing campaign and one-to-one support service for prospective trainee teachers continues to support RE ITT recruitment. We will also continue to assess the need for trainees across all subjects and review the bursaries on offer prior to announcing the bursary offer for the 2027/28 academic year this autumn.
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