Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to make citizenship education a priority subject for teacher training.

The Department is committed to ensuring that teaching remains an attractive profession and that graduates can access high quality teacher training across all subjects. That’s why in January the Department launched the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy. Designed collaboratively with the sector, the centrepiece of the strategy is the Early Career Framework (ECF) which will underpin a fully-funded, two-year support package for new teachers, providing them with the early career support enjoyed by other top professionals.

The Government offers student finance for all tuition fee funded citizenship teacher training courses, including a tuition fee loan which means that trainee teachers do not need to pay fees upfront. Citizenship trainee teachers can also apply for a maintenance loan to support their living costs. Those considering citizenship Initial Teacher Training (ITT) are eligible for one to one support from Teacher Training Advisers, to guide them through their journey into teaching. They can access this support by registering with Get into Teaching.

For some subjects, the Department provide bursaries to incentivise applications. The Department has had to take difficult decisions about where to focus this bursaries budget. As schools enter more pupils for English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects, it is expected that there will be more demand for specialist teachers in these subjects. The Department has therefore focused the bursaries budget on EBacc subjects to secure as many applicants as possible in the subjects where schools are likely to devote the most teaching time.