Lord Bassam of Brighton
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Recruitment of Teachers
Lord Bassam of Brighton Excerpts(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
It is certainly the case that there has been a disappointing failure to address the shortage of modern foreign language teachers. That is why, for example, one of the things that the Government will do is extend bursary and scholarship eligibility to all non-UK-national trainees in languages. That means scholarships and bursaries worth a considerable amount of money. I note the noble Baroness’s point about visa costs. I think what is more important is that it is clear to domestic or international potential modern foreign language teachers that this is a country in which their efforts will be reasonably well rewarded and that they will be provided with all the other support necessary to carry out that important role of language teaching.
Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)
My Lords, the House of Lords Select Committee on the future of seaside towns back in 2019 identified a real problem with the retention of teachers in coastal and remote communities. Could the Minister outline the Government’s approach to this issue now?
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
My noble friend is right that there are clearly areas of the country where there are particular challenges, both for children and for the teachers teaching them. Therefore, this impacts on retention. That is why, for example, in terms of the targeted retention incentive, we are focusing it on teachers within the first five years of their career, which is the point at which many teachers decide if they will stay on or not. We are focusing on STEM subjects and on those teachers who come and are willing to stay in those areas and schools that are most disadvantaged. I am sure that some of the schools that my noble friend referenced would come within this category. Therefore, there would be support to retain teachers.