Reducing a bursary for maths teachers in favour of retention payments in their early careers likely resulted in a net loss of almost 200 entrants to the profession, an evaluation has found.
The Department for Education piloted its “phased maths bursary” scheme in 2018.
Previously, bursaries for trainees ranged between £25,000 and £27,500 and were paid upfront.
However under the pilot, this initial payment fell to between £20,000 and £22,000 and instead payments of between £5,000 and £7,500 in the third and fifth year of teaching were introduced.
