Petition Make the 2012/2013 Training Bursaries for PGCE Students Retrospective

We, the undersigned, want the government to make the 2012/2013 scheme of training bursaries for Postgraduate Teacher Training to be made available to current trainee teachers, many of whom are being forced to subsist on maintenance loans.

The new ITT strategy, which proposes a system of financial incentives for trainees with good degrees in shortage subjects, will be available for trainees on eligible postgraduate courses and the funding awarded will vary depending on teaching subject and degree class. The bursaries range from £5,000 to £20,000, assuming that the trainee meets the requisite standards for a bursary. Since bursaries were also available in 2010/2011, this year’s intake of teachers are the only year to be forced to endure financial hardship in order to gain access to a profession that so desperately needs good teachers. This is clearly unjust.