Deserving education, but not initially (7)
I believe the answer is:
earning
'deserving' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'education but not initially' is the wordplay.
'education' becomes 'learning' (learning is a kind of education).
'but not initially' means to remove the first letter.
'learning' with its first letter taken away is 'EARNING'.
(Other definitions for earning that I've seen before include "Meriting" , "Realising" , "Receiving in return for work" , "Deserving" , "Gaining a wage" .)