Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

STEM Teachers: Disadvantaged Areas

Monday 4 July 2022 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Ministerial Department will provide a 3,000 tax-free bonus annually to early career STEM teachers in disadvantaged areas.
  • Three specialist maths schools are currently operational with excellent A-level results.
  • Universities and further education institutions will collaborate to support STEM provision and career development.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Claire Coutinho Con East Surrey
Education Taxation Employment
Context

The question arises from the need to improve educational opportunities and teacher distribution in less privileged regions.

Question

What steps is his Department taking to attract science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers to disadvantaged areas?

Answer from Nadhim Zahawi

From this autumn, the levelling-up premium will provide early career teachers in maths, physics, chemistry and computing with a bonus of up to £3,000 tax-free annually if they teach disadvantaged children in disadvantaged schools. That is in addition to tax-free bursaries worth £24,000 and tax-free scholarships worth £26,000.

Answered
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Q2 Claire Coutinho Con East Surrey
Education
Context

This question follows up on the initial query regarding measures to attract STEM teachers and enquires about a separate initiative focused on maths education.

Question

I welcome this package; it is the right thing to do to try to get high-quality teachers into disadvantaged schools. I also support the specialist maths schools agenda, which ensuring that aim in a different way. Will the Secretary of State update the House on its progress?

Answer from Nadhim Zahawi

We have three great specialist maths schools, with some of the best A-level results nationally. We are on track to have 10 regional maths schools by 2025, including one in Surrey.

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Q3 Barry Sheerman Lab
Education Science & Technology
Context

This supplementary question addresses the broader role of higher education institutions and their relevance to regional development and educational policy.

Question

Does the Secretary of State agree that partnerships with local and regional universities are necessary to deliver STEM provision? Does it disturb him that some universities want to go back to teaching only science and engineering, excluding arts and humanities?

Answer from Nadhim Zahawi

Universities, including the Open University, will play a key role. The collaboration between further education and higher education in our institutes of technology is equally important to ensure that we produce different runways from which young people's careers can take off.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The specific view on university partnerships and their focus areas was not directly addressed, focusing instead on the broader role of education collaboration.

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