Teachers are to be offered cash incentives to stick with the profession as part of the government’s strategy to increase the number of people working in the sector.

Plans published on Monday will offer some young secondary teachers £5,000 in their third and fifth years in the classroom - on top of initial training bursaries.

As it stands, teachers in subjects with shortages such as physics, chemistry, and languages, can receive a bursary of up to £26,000, but there are no further payments.

The so-called "early career payment" scheme, which rewards teachers for staying in the classroom, has already been trialled for maths teachers.

The move comes as teachers across the country have been leaving the profession in droves. The Department for Education notes in a report titled, Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, that by 2025 there will be 15% more pupils in English secondary schools than there were in 2018.

The proposals laid out by Education Secretary, Damian Hinds’, are being supported by £130m in funding a year, include reduced timetables, flexible working and allowing teachers to do away with the “unnecessary tasks” they are burdened with on a day-to-day basis.

Hinds notably wants to reduce the excessive paperwork that leaves teachers demoralised.

“I think teachers work too many hours – aggravated by unnecessary tasks like excessive marking and data entry, spending more than half their time on non-teaching tasks,” he said.