The Live Wire



Press Release

Teacher training places and bursaries 2011/12

1 February 2011

Commenting on the Government’s decisions regarding teacher training places and funding, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union said;

“While none of this is unexpected it still remains a recipe for disaster. It is nothing short of baffling for the Education Secretary to talk of the importance of teaching while putting in place measures to cut short teacher training programmes.

“To imply that we are following Finland and Korea’s lead in training is nothing short of disingenuous. Neither country has employment based routes into teaching. Their training is higher education based to masters’ level, so they have longer academic courses than we have currently. In fact, Korea has recently reformed its initial education system from a 4 year university based course to a 6 year course.

“It is a short sighted reaction to cut the amount of secondary teacher training places. While we do presently have a need for more primary teachers, it seems to have escaped the Education Department’s attention that those children will be going onto secondary school in a few years. This will send us back to the days of boom and bust in teacher supply which we have actually been able to avoid in the last few years.

“Doubling the number of Teach First places is a mistake, particularly for the primary school sector. Teach First themselves recognise this. It is one thing to teach a group of interested 16 year olds it is quite another for someone to take over the teaching of a class of primary school children with no in-depth theoretical based training. Primary schools simply have far less capacity to provide support to the trainee teacher than secondary schools.

“The result of a degree does not correlate to how good a teacher you can be. Having knowledge of a subject and being able to teach it are two very different things. Many potentially excellent teachers may well be lost to the profession”.



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National Union of Teachers

National Union of Teachers

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