Education secretary pledges to recruit 6,500 teachers
Bridget Phillipson said she would work to make the job an "attractive expert profession."
The new education secretary has set out her plan to recruit 6,500 more new teachers.
Bridget Phillipson says she wants to change how the profession is seen throughout the country, with goals of recruiting new teachers whilst retaining the ones currently in classrooms.
In a statement, Phillipson said she would work to make a job in British education an "attractive expert profession."
“For too long the teaching profession has been talked down, side-lined and denigrated," she said.
Mark Payne, a school business manager from Yeovil, has called the pledge “a much-needed development” and a “welcome target”.
Business manager Mark Payne said: “One of the first decisions they’re going to have to make is about the teacher pay rise for the coming year and that will be an important signal to whether they're prepared to invest in teachers”.
Currently, the government is quoting the average starting salary of a new teacher to be ÂŁ30k.
"The devil is in the details, is there any money behind it?” Mr Payne said.
Bridget Phillipson is meeting with teaching unions in “the coming days”.