In among all the back and forth over what counts in education, there is one thing we can all agree on: it’s the quality of the teaching that counts.

That is why the current storm over government proposals to rip apart the way we train teachers needs so much attention.

The evidence I see internationally is that great jurisdictions build teacher professionalism and autonomy. As professionals, teachers are given time to observe and reflect on practice, to read academic evidence and to engage in dialogue and critical thinking. 

That is why, as schools minister, more than 10 years ago, I tried to push teaching towards becoming a master’s-only profession. At the time, Teach First was a niche entry route to attract some of the brightest graduates into teaching.

Teacher training: Is teaching no more than a technical craft? 

Since then, ministers have seen the success of Teach First and decided that teaching is therefore little more than a technical craft. If graduates can be trained over the summer and get results a year later, then who needs professionalism? The fact that treating teachers as technicians significantly increases the retention problem is just an inconvenient truth.

This view of teaching lies behind the dangerous market review proposals published this week. These proposals pose an existential threat to the very future of the teaching profession.

This is a deliberate attempt to push universities out of teacher training. It is not because there is a problem - Ofsted judges all the provision to “good” or “outstanding”.

But universities have academic freedom. They nurture critical thinking and might even publish evidence that disagrees with Nick Gibb, the ever-present schools minister. From Sanctuary Buildings, the home of the Department for Education, this cannot be tolerated.

So, the thought police have struck. Having tightly specified the content of training for the first years of teaching in the Early Careers Framework, and then contracted the provision to their trusted friends, they want to do the same for initial teacher training. This is illustrated in a document published last month: Delivering World-Class Teacher Development.

In the final annex, this document shows just three main providers, one of which is the favoured Institute of Teaching, which will be contracted out and magically become the flagship teacher trainer. 

Each provider then works with schools through teaching school hubs and “other providers”. No mention of universities and no mention of school-based initial teacher training.

A government that values compliance over professionalism

What we are offered is a training curriculum prescribed by ministers, delivered by contractors signed off by ministers. Why would any self-respecting university submit to that? Why have your academic integrity compromised in that way? It’s not like ITT makes them any money.

If these existing providers walk away, as the government wants, what goes with them?

We lose the existing partnership relationships with schools, which are essential to the system. We lose the delivery of the PGCE and the master’s-level research. And as we move from the status quo to Nick Gibb’s brave new world, we risk the loss of many thousands of teacher-training places.

What is the alternative? If ministers want to change the system, why not look at the teacher standards and the inspection framework? Why not focus on the outcomes rather than dictating the process? Why not trust professionals?

Which brings us back to the root of this row. The government does not trust teachers and does not trust teacher trainers. It values compliance. 

They want schools that churn out pupils who answer questions, but don’t ask them. They want teacher technicians focusing on schooling unquestioning behaviour, rather than the creative, curious citizens that the future needs.

The government has ignored its own code of practice and halved the consultation time for these proposals to just six weeks. Six weeks of the summer holidays. 

But if you care about your profession, please respond here by 22 August.

Lord Jim Knight was Labour schools minister from 2006 to 2009. He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Teaching Profession