Voice concerned by "hasty" teacher training scheme

10 March 2009

Voice: the union for education professionals has voiced its concerns about the public service announcements being made by the Prime Minister and DCSF today (10 March 2009).

General Secretary Philip Parkin said: "I am concerned that this is another back-of-an-envelope scheme put together in haste by the DCSF at the bidding of Downing Street so the Prime Minister can announce something in a speech.

"This is not about quality. It's about grabbing headlines about job creation in a recession.

"While we welcome the Government's commitment to encouraging the most able graduates to enter teaching, the danger of fast-tracking them to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in six months is that it erodes the value of existing training and the work of those undertaking and delivering it, misunderstands the nature of teaching, and devalues the profession of teaching and current teachers.

"Teaching is about far more than having knowledge. It's also about having the ability to communicate that knowledge and the aptitude to work with children. Such a speeded-up scheme undermines the work of recent years to raise the status of teaching and to move to a masters-level profession.

"This is just too short a period of time to acquire the minimum skills and knowledge required to be a successful teacher and to be able to demonstrate that they have been acquired.

"The current training routes into the profession are well-established and perfectly able to meet the needs of new entrants, allowing a number of flexibilities and options. There is no need for this new route nor, do I believe, is there any demand for it.

"Outside certain subjects, there is not a shortage of recruits and there are newly qualified teachers who are struggling to find employment.

"On the one hand the Government mistakenly complains that competence issues amongst teachers are not being dealt with vigorously, while on the other hand it proposes a scheme to give new entrants QTS after an inadequately short training period.

"I am also worried about the reported suggestion that members of the public will be able to post comments about children's centres and other public services on Websites. While allowing people to have their say on services is important, there need to be safeguards in place to prevent baseless malicious or mischievous anonymous comments being posted that could harm the reputation of institutions or individuals.

"There is clearly still much work to be done on this as the DCSF press release lists a number of 'aspects' that 'may' be included in the scheme. We will certainly need to make significant input into the consultation on this.

"It's a shame that the Government didn't consult the unions and other partners before announcing this."

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