There is possibly nothing worse than receiving a demand for payment from the Student Loans Companynbsp;on the same day as reading Nicholas Barnard’s articlenbsp;( TES March 23) about the pound;36,000 new teachers will be able to earn.

I am in my second year of teaching at a primary school and my husband is deputy head at another school.

I am now earning just enough to pay back the loans I took out as a student. These were not frittered away on alcohol and drugs, they were spent mainly on books and day-to-day life. I worked as a part-time childminder to get myself through my four year course. I am now paying approximately pound;90 a month to the SLC. And yet the government is considering paying off new trainees’ loans. Well thanks, and what about me, and my husband, who is also still paying off his loans. Are they going to offer us the same? No such luck.

Instead of dangling a carrot in front of prospective new teachers, why don’t they try keeping the ones they’ve got? What’s to say these “golden” new teachers are going to stay in the profession anyway?

Two disillusioned teachers, Cornwall
(names and addresses supplied)