Top-up fees hit trainee teachers
Top-up fees are to be chargeable on postgraduate teacher-training courses from 2006, it has been revealed. Trainee teachers currently get their course fees paid by the government, but when the new university funding plans come into effect universities will be able to charge up to £3,000, in common with undergraduate degrees.
The news came as a report from the LSE said that schools in England would be hit by a serious shortage of teachers in the next ten years if action is not taken. The official retirement age for teachers is 65, but the report's authors point out that teachers can retire at 55 and many of them do.
Stress, increasing workloads and low pay are likely to be to blame for both experienced and newly-qualified teachers leaving the profession in droves.
Increasing the debt burden new teachers are under and removing the financial incentive to sign up for PGCEs will obviously go a long way in reducing the shortage.
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