The lure of the classroom

The number of graduates applying to become teachers has been rising for the past three years. Steve McCormack reports on the incentives that are enticing students back into the schoolroom

Who'd want to go into teaching? Well, it doesn't yet have the robustly healthy appeal of investment banking, media or the law for graduating students, but it's definitely out of the intensive-care unit.

Who'd want to go into teaching? Well, it doesn't yet have the robustly healthy appeal of investment banking, media or the law for graduating students, but it's definitely out of the intensive-care unit.

For three consecutive years, the number of graduates signing up for secondary PGCE courses has been rising, and applications for courses starting this autumn also show a significant increase on last year's figures.

Until fairly recently, one of the big turn-offs was money, or the lack of it. Now, though, programmes designed to address this problem have started to have an effect.

Away from the high cost of living in the south east, teachers' pay is far from derisory. Graduates start on a salary of just over £18,500, and can make swift progress by assuming extra responsibilities within their schools. In one Home Counties comprehensive, a maths teacher who began her career in 2000 has seen her salary double since she started work.

The financial enticements to ease the passage through teacher training have also become more succulent year on year. Since 2000, all PGCE students have been given a tax-free grant of £6,000 during their training year, while those training for subjects in which there is a shortage of teachers (maths, science, modern languages, English, drama, design and technology, ICT and Welsh) also receive a so-called "golden hello" (which is taxed) of £4,000 once they complete their first full year after qualification.

On top of that, since 2001 all PGCE starters in shortage subjects have been further lured in by the promise of having their student loans paid off, albeit over a period of at least five years after qualification. This is, however, only a pilot scheme, which comes to an end this academic year. What will replace it is not yet clear.

At the time of writing, applications for PGCE courses starting in September were up by 15 per cent on the same time last year. Increases in key subjects are mostly just as sharp: maths is up 24 per cent, ICT 39 per cent and English 16 per cent. The one disappointment in these otherwise encouraging statistics is the seven per cent drop in those applying to teach German.

It's clear, though, that the figures do mirror the trend over the past three years of a steadily rising number of graduates actually starting secondary PGCE courses. Last year, for example, acceptances rose by 10 per cent, and this followed rises of 14 and four per cent in previous years.

Mary Doherty, of the Teacher Training Agency, is encouraged, but not complacent: "We need to recruit 40,000 people to train to teach this year and challenges remain in attracting sufficient trainees for maths, physics, chemistry, languages, RE and music. We must continue to encourage all those interested in teaching to find out more about the opportunities teaching offers."

The improvement may be due in part to the high-profile advertising campaigns of the last few years, from "Everyone Remembers a Good Teacher", to "Those Who Can, Teach" and now, "Use Your Head".

The first two of these were aimed at individuals already in some way disposed towards going into teaching. In the latest campaign, which features decapitated people getting up and going to work in various non-teaching environments, there is a deliberate attempt to attract those who may never have thought about teaching as an option. It's too early to judge the effectiveness of this strategy, but the adverts do at least seem to have provoked discussion.

It seems clear, though, that a sustained increase in the numbers of those opting for teaching is already underway. However, the next challenge is to try to persuade the teachers who do join to stay around for more than a few years because retention, particularly in the south east, remains a giant headache. Countless schools struggle through with timetables patched up with supply teachers and teachers filling in outside their specialist area. The destabilising effect on pupils' learning and behaviour can be immense. Unless the retention nut is cracked soon, the gains made on the recruitment front will continue to be undermined.