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ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on plans for professionals to qualify as a teacher in England in six months.
The fast-track scheme will allow the best candidates to qualify in half the amount of time that they would normally take to train. Some unemployed professionals will be eligible to run schools after just four years.
The proposals are the headline policy from the public service reform paper which has been published by prime minister Gordon Brown.
Stakeholder Response: NASUWT
Commenting on the proposals, Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: "It must be clear from the outset that whatever the length of the course, there cannot be any compromise on the skills and knowledge that need to be covered and developed during the training. Rigorous quality assurance is a must.
"In reality there are no shortcuts to being an effective teacher. The same ground, to the same depth, will need to be covered in six months as in the longer courses. It will be highly intensive and such hot-housing will not appeal to everyone.
"The Accelerate to Headship scheme may have merit if it provides the opportunity for groups currently under-represented in leadership structures in schools to progress to headship. The credibility of this route will depend on it being rigorous, robust and grounded in professional practice.
"Serving teachers will rightly expect those who opt for these routes to be genuinely motivated and committed to working within a public service. Children and young people deserve to be taught by those who are in it for the duration, not refugees from business biding their time until something better comes along.
"The NASUWT welcomes the commitment of the DCSF to discussing the detail of these proposals with the social partners. The union will seek to ensure that all of these fundamental and critical principles are met."
Stakeholder Response: National Union of Teachers
Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "Training someone to be a teacher in six months is an ill thought out scheme that consigns Gordon Brown's vision of a world class education system to the scrap-heap.
"It may work for a mathematician or scientist to come into schools and teach a small group of interested 16 to 18-year-olds but quite another for someone to take over the teaching of a class of primary school children or those in the early stages of secondary school. Having knowledge and being able to teach it are not the same thing.
"Teaching is not a profession that can be picked up at the drop of a hat. There needs to be the time for reflection and the capacity to undertake in-depth theoretical study. To bring in an entry route that does not provide a good grounding in theory will not only undermine the status of the profession but will also jeopardise the education of our children and young people."
Stakeholder Response: Voice, the union for educational professionals
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."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd
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