TEACHERS training on the job are being left open to exploitation by schools desperate to fill vacancies, the National Union of Teachers claims.
Its response to proposals from the Teacher Training Agency to reform initial teacher training says that some schools take on graduates with little or no experience of how to support them, and that clear guidelines are needed. Other organisations share these concerns, but most have welcomed proposals to streamline the prescriptive “national curriculum” for teacher training introduced in 1998.
Consultations closed this week on plans for new requirements for initial training and for revised standards for qualified teacher status.
Most respondents remain opposed to the controversial QTS skills tests in numeracy, literacy and information and communication technology. All trainees now have to pass these computer-based tests. But, after complaints about technical problems and fears that good candidates were being put off teaching, ministers have had to remove any limit of the number of times trainees could take the tests.
The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers has called for an end to the tests. In a report published this week, it says students are spending up to pound;160 in support and study materials for the tests, plus travel costs to exam centres. The union repeats academics’ doubts about the validity of the tests. It says students with special needs, such as dyslexia or English as an additional language, are not being told of the special arrangements for them.
Meanwhile, subject associations are concerned over plans to drop the requirement for new teachers to have a specialism. They will have to cover the core subjects of English, maths and science, but then only geography or history, art or design technology, music or drama.
“Such constriction of training courses will lead to a further cramping of the primary curriculum, already dangerously pre-occupied with measuring a narrow range of skills,” said Roy Hughes, chairman of the Historical Association’s primary section. “History develops literacy, consolidates reading and writing, encourages active citizenship, and teaches small children about the meaning of stories.”
Both unions and trainers are worried about plans to stop requiring trainees to do teaching practice in two schools. And the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers says the new teacher training curriculum is still too regulated. “The nation needs teachers who are highly educated, not simply well-trained,” its response notes.
See www.can-teach.gov.uk
