If you haven’t heard of the repayment of teacher loans (RTL) scheme yet, you’re not alone. Many new teachers are unaware of it - and it’s not surprising as the initiative has been short on publicity so far.

A cynic might even suspect an element of hush-hush given that the scheme will probably cost the Department for Education a pretty penny. This is a fantastic deal in which all your student loans will be paid off. Last year, a fairly typical NQT borrowed pound;6,500 during her first degree and pound;2,800 in her post-graduate year, but the total of pound;11,300 of debt plus interest will be paid off. At last, a real incentive to join the profession.

But before you get carried away, there is a lot of small print. For a start, the only people eligible are those who qualified after February 1, 2002. On the plus side, though, it applies to all routes into teaching - so it’s not just for PGCE students.

You must have a permanent or fixed-term contract of at least eight continuous weeks with a school or local education authority - and not a supply agency. There are even deals for those in further education. So the repayment scheme is much fairer than the Golden Hello, which is limited to those with PGCEs and excludes people in CTCs, city academies and FE.

The scheme covers those who teach a shortage subject for at least half their timetable, so those who teach non-core subjects might feel peeved - and rightly so. For them, first it was no Golden Hello, and now it’s no loans repaid. It seems unfair, but the DfES wants to tempt people with particular degrees into the profession.

In theory, primary teachers are also eligible if they teach a shortage subject for at least half the week. But as primary schools tend not to work in that way, in practice the loan scheme simply won’t be an option for most primary teachers.

Importantly, to qualify you must start teaching within seven months of gaining qualified teacher status. For most, that means February. Your QTS certificate from the DfES is crucial in determining the seven months exactly. This will be a blow to those off travelling abroad who might be planning to come back to a teaching job next spring.

In places where there are no teacher shortages, this time limit is an extra headache, especially on top of the induction “four-term rule”, which states that you can’t do short-term supply once four terms have elapsed from the first day’s work unless you’ve completed induction. It doesn’t help that people on supply may not know about the rule. In this case, perhaps the supply agencies should inform them of it.

The scheme can only be used to pay back debts to the Student Loans Company, so it can’t be used to pay back money borrowed from your family, friends or from banks. So there is no reward for those who might have got bar jobs in the holidays or scraped by without borrowing. In that sense, the initiative could be seen as an encouragement to people to accrue debt. But it would be a mistake to rely on it in advance because the rules are constantly changing. Significantly, the RTL is a “pilot” scheme and will only apply to those who start teaching in this and the following two academic years.

Repayment begins as soon as you start a full-time job in teaching, so make sure you don’t make any voluntary payments or let relatives pay off your debt as a graduation present, or else you’ll lose out.

Perhaps the most important fact to remember is that your debts are not paid off in one go but over 10 years (for full-time teachers with income-contingent loans) or around five to seven years for those with mortgage-style loans. You can switch schools, but you can’t stop being a teacher of a shortage subject in the state sector. If you do, you’ll have to start making the loan repayments yourself.

Sara Bubb is an induction consultant for several authorities. She works at the Institute of Education and is the New Teacher expert for The TES. She is author of “A Newly Qualified Teacher’s Manual”, published by David Fulton, price pound;16

ARE YOU ELIGIBLE?

* Do you teach maths, science, modern foreign languages, English (including drama), Welsh, design and technology or ICT?

* Do you teach any of the above subjects for at least half of your teaching timetable in school?

* Do you work in a maintained school, a non-maintained special school, a city technology college, a city college for the technology of the arts or a city academy in England or Wales?

* Did you start teaching within seven months of gaining QTS?

* Do you have a contract of at least eight continuous weeks with a school or local education authority?

* Do you have QTS that was awarded after February 1 2002?

* Do you have an outstanding debt with the Student Loans Company?

If you can answer yes to all of the above questions, then you should apply now to have your student loans repaid. Get an application form straight away from the Student Loans Company (0870 240 6298).

For more details, contact the Teaching Information Line (0845 6000 991). If you believe that this scheme is unfair, please write to your MP and to Sara Bubb, our agony aunt on the TES website (www.tes.co.ukstaffroom)