The conservative party have announced that trainee science teachers would not have to pay for tuition fees, if their new proposals to improve teaching standards were to go ahead.
Graduates who receive a first class or 2:1 degree in mathematics, science or a technology would be eligible for the scheme, if they had graduated from a university approved by the Conservative party.
Anybody who participated in the scheme would have their loans paid off for as long as they remained teaching, which could save graduates £40,000 in total. Anybody who gave up teaching would have to make their own payments.
The system would be applicable to both secondary and primary school teachers.
The proposals are based on a system first introduced by President Obama in the U.S.A, and would be paid out of the Training and Development Agency’s current budget.
Research has revealed that Britain is suffering from a lack of science and mathematical teachers, which is affecting GCSE results, particularly in low income areas.
In a speech to the Sir John Cass Foundation yesterday, the shadow schools secretary Michael Gove announced that the system would encourage more science graduates to turn towards teaching.
He said: “We will have a new generation of specialist maths and science teachers. We will raise the prestige of the profession and this will, as in Finland and Singapore, create a virtuous circle.”