HAVING just embarked on a primary PGCE, this September I felt compelled to respond to your article on the problems of recruitment within the teaching profession (TES, October 1).
After completing a three-year English and history degree I applied for a two-year full-time primary PGCE. However, even now less than one month after the start of the course the financial implications of another two years study has begun to bite deep.
Each morning I have to make a 32-mile journey to my nearest teacher-training college which costs on average pound;30 a week.
Added to this is the cost of pre-school childcare that I am forced to pay each day in order to arrive at college for a 9am start. On top of this is the cost of “essential” texts that we are encouraged to buy, but which have totalled more than a pound;100 so far.
In all I estimate that just to attend college each week we are forced to pay out in excess of pound;50. Although I work part-time, and have done so throughout my degree, I feel that the financial pressures placed upon my family are becoming difficult to bear.
What saddens me most however, is that I have a real desire to teach and work with children. I for one am determined to struggle on and gain my teaching qualification. However, many others with the same enthusiasm are clearly been put off by the enormous hurdles placed in front of them by a Government who wish to encourage “good” graduates into the teaching profession.
W Jane Wilson
34, Fountains Avenue
Ingleby Barwick
Stockton-on-Tees
