Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a central bursary fund to train teachers specialising in teaching children with a hearing impairment; and what plans he has to address the shortage of specialised teachers in this area.

The department received a proposal from the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) for a central bursary scheme to fund trainee teachers of the hearing impaired. After consideration the department found that it did not provide strong enough evidence that a bursary is the solution to the declining numbers of trained teachers of the deaf.

Officials are working with NDCS and other organisations in the sensory impairment sector to identify non-bursary solutions to support teachers wishing to train as teachers of the deaf, or teachers for the sensory impaired more widely.