Jarvis's Story

Meet Jarvis, 25, from Hammersmith and Chiswick, who wanted to become a teacher in London's schools. Despite having the qualifications and passion for education, he found himself blocked by a system that seems designed to fail. The Department for Education reduced teacher training bursaries for subjects with critical shortages in London, setting national recruitment targets that ignore regional disparities. Treasury spending rules force departments to compete for fixed pots, as though the government that creates the currency must first find it somewhere. The classrooms were there. The graduates who wanted to teach were there. What was missing was Westminster's political will to connect them. Disclosure: This episode explores how central government funding choices create artificial scarcity in public services.