The government’s decision to remove the a bursary for RE will exacerbate the current shortage of teachers in the sector, it has been warned.
The Department for Education said that the £10,000 Initial Teacher Training (ITT) bursary will no longer be offered from September 2026.
Despite strong demand from students to study RE, there is a significant lack of professional RE teachers. Many who teach RE at GCSE level and above are in fact specialists in other areas.
According to figures from UCAS, recruitment of RE teachers in 2025-26 reached only 54 per cent of the government’s target, one of the weakest showings of any subjects.
The bursary was only introduced in the 2024-25 academic year, as recruitment for the subject had failed to reach its target for nine out of the last 10 years. During the period the bursary was available, RE teacher applications increased by 40 per cent, although they were still short of the target.
The lack of recruits has other effects aside from a subsequent lack of professional teachers. The University of Birmingham has said that this year will be its last offering of RE as a PGCE course due to lack of take up.
The Religious Education Policy Unit (REPU) has warned that failure to cultivate sufficient numbers of full-time RE teachers could result in “tokenistic” teaching of the subject. It has called upon the government to reverse its decision.
Deborah Weston OBE, Chair of the REPU, said, “This is a devastating decision that will seriously threaten the provision of high quality religious education at a time when schools need it most.
"Some subjects, such as English, have had the bursary removed after being oversubscribed. This is not the case with RE which is facing a generational recruitment crisis.
“Last year’s bursary saw progress made on reversing the long term crisis of specialism in our schools, with teacher applications rising by 40%. Put simply, for a shortage subject like RE, bursaries work.”
