I write with regard to the article headlined “Students fight to get training salaries for all” (TES, April 20). I completed my postgraduate certificate the year before the salary came in and am destined to be paying off debts for some time. Elizabeth Kinsey, a BA teaching student, seems bitter about PGCE students receiving salaries, saying: “It does seem unfair when undergraduate students are doing the same length of training and show more commitment earlier to teaching.”
I disagree with her strongly. Many people (myself included) chose the PGCE option as a different route. Yet m desire to be a teacher goes back many years. I have no less passion for teaching but gained valuable work experience in my time away from education. I have always known what I wanted to do but chose to take a route giving me a more focused expertise in my degree subjects.
But perhaps it would be fairer if BEd students were funded in the fourth year of their training.
PGCE students do not necessarily take up teaching as a “back-up” or “safety net”. It is just a different route to the same ultimate goal.
Emma Hardy
24 Raymond Avenue
Canterbury, Kent
