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Teacher training in six months is 'just a gimmick'
Nicholas Cecil10.03.09
Ministers faced a backlash today over their plans to allow City workers made redundant to become teachers within six months.
Teaching unions dismissed the scheme, part of a string of public sector reforms unveiled by Gordon Brown today, as a "gimmick" and "demeaning" to existing teachers.
Ministers are proposing to halve the one-year qualifying time for outstanding candidates to train as a teacher. "It used to be that the City attracted the very best, now let's get them into teaching," schools minister Jim Knight told GMTV this morning.
Exceptional teachers could also become heads within four years. The Government aims to train 200 headteachers by 2014 under the fast-track scheme.
Headteachers said current specialist programmes to attract high-flyers into classrooms were costly and had a higher rate of people later dropping out of teaching in state schools.
But Mr Knight stressed: "We want people who genuinely want to come into a classroom - not just because they don't know what else to do."
The Prime Minister's other reforms today include allowing patients to post online reviews of their GPs and other local health services.
Department of Health officials are likening the model to the Tripadvisor website where travellers can share their thoughts, often scathing, about hotels. Many doctors are already opposing plans to allow patients to put feedback about services they get at NHS hospitals on a website.
Childcare providers are to undergo similar scrutiny via a website expected to be up and running early next year, and websites with nation-wide "mapping" will let people compare police forces and councils. Parents will also be able to have their say on new school report cards.
Mr Brown said today that the Government had been slow to use the "enormous democratising power of information". He said: "We are ushering in a new world of accountability in which parents, patients and local communities shape services."
The Conservatives dismissed Labour's latest proposals, arguing that billions had been wasted on unreformed public services and that Mr Brown had been the "roadblock" to change.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne said: "This is just complete junk. In the dying months of the Government, we will take with a pinch of salt anything they say that they will do about public sector reform."
The National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts estimates that failure to reform public services could cost London £95 billion by 2025 in soaring bills for health problems including obesity, caring for an ageing population and other growing threats such as climate change.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers dismissed the six-month teacher training scheme as a "gimmick" and "back-of-the-fag-packet stuff". Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said that six months' training was "very, very far from being enough". She added: "It demeans the position of people who are teachers at the moment."
General secretary Mary Bousted added: "It sounds like an employment scheme for unemployed bankers, but this may not be the best way to go about it."
Reader views (34)
Absolutely ridiculous idea. There are people out there who put hard work into 4 years of teacher training. Primary Teaching is not just a job for people who are seeking a new career. Its for those who have are enthusiastic, dedicated and have the gift of being able to work with children. If you think you could be ready in 6 months, think again. As for the "witty" comment about long holidays... get a grip, most of the teachers spend a majority of those holidays planning for the next year ahead.
- R, Scotland UK
Im about to start a four year teaching training degree so to me the people who are able to do what im doing in 6 months is very irritating. will these people have to have degrees like people who get PGCE's? because if thats not the case its extremely unfair. what about all the teachers now who paid 3000 a year for four years to become teachers and these people can do it in six months. its just unfair!
- Hayley Dixon, Leeds
Part of the problem is that the Government has put so many demands on teachers that the stress is causing them to leave teaching. Another cause is the fact that Labour's lies are catching up with them.For years they have been misrepresenting actual immigration figures, so that they can't forecast the numbers of children of school age.Witness the shortfal of 5000 school places this autumn.
The answer is to increase recruitment , but it will not be possible to dispense with the probationary year, so the solution will not be instantaneous.
- Jeremiah, London
No, No, No, why?
- Slightly Jaded N London., uk
Most of the people complaining about the 'dumbing down of this countries [sic] education system' and accusing the bankers of 'bringing the countries to it's [sic] knees' appear to have come through the British schooling system with a pretty poor grasp of English grammar. I'd venture to suggest that maybe it wasn't that great before, when they were at school (presumably under a Tory leadership?)and that it is successive governments, not just Gordon Brown's, who are cumulatively culpable.
- Lj, london
The only job I would fast track these ex city Bankers is a dose of HARD PHYSICAL WORK DOWN THE MINES.
- Den, London
Yet more dumbing down of this countries education system. Like everything else,that this government does, it just won't work.
- David, Fleet UK
What makes Gordon Brown think that City workers, whose mathematical skills have been proved to be highly suspect, will make capable mathematics teachers?
- W, London
Sorry but someone with 20 years experience of stressful City working has probably got a much greater capacity to learn on their feet than a trainee doing their PGCE who generally has little real life experience. If you can keep your head in a presentation to 20 prospects and get across a complex message convincingly then why not? The City's ethos is push hard until you don't succeed, then find out why you didn't and put it right. They're used to long hours and negative feedback.
- Cassandra, Bretwood Essex
Why the fuss ? 'The City' attracted the best brains of the last two generations. City careers are short,the financial services industry is still too large and the country needs teachers - it's basic reallocation of resources.In addition,as others have said it might add a bit of dynamism to the classroom.It's an all=round win-win situation. Well done government.
- Pablo, Tonbridge
God, I despair of the madman Brown and his cohort. I worked in industry for years, then entered teaching at age 40 with a sense of vocation after 'fast track' training, which took 2 years! Another few years and I became a reasonably effective teacher.
The English state education system is perilously close to breaking point with all the mad 'initiatives' Brown's lot dream up to get themselves another headline or five minutes on the box, then walk away without ensuring funding and staffing are even adequate to follow through.
This new lunacy is on top of Labour-led councils - Hounslow for one - last week voting to disband valuable and desperately-needed education units, depriving the most needy children of expert help and throwing experienced professionals out of work to avoid a small rise in council tax.
If these 'high flyers' are so great, why are they unemployed? Joined up thinking from government - they have to be joking!
The last thing education here needs is to be an employment scheme for unemployed city traders who helped create the current financial crisis.
- Kiwi Expat, London, UK
Actually I was thinking of becoming a brain surgeon in two weeks, but my dog tore up the correspondence course books! Labour has created a country that's now in a right old state, and once they messed it all up, they then think up some rediculous scheme to try and patch up the mess they made of it in the first place! Maybe the city guys could start by teaching Graduates how to spell.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
I use to be a teacher and I have nothing against anyone being a teacher, it is a wonderful career. All I ask from teachers is to be passionate about teaching. I am not sure someone who has completed a 6 month course will be...I might be wrong.
Also, I remember when I was training to be a teacher and watching the Post grads do their course in 9 months. It was compact and stressful. They would be in schools teaching about 75% of the time, and still had lectures and assignments to fit around their timetables, including evenings, weekends and holidays. I can't see how this would be done in 6 months without weak teachers getting through.
- J Ron, Kent, UK
Everybody knows that most people who've gone into teaching in recent times have only done so for the long holidays (actually, I suspect they all do but I'm being generous here and giving a few of them the benefit of the doubt). At least City workers are real workers not shirkers and would instill a work ethic into the little blighters. And with half the kids nowadays leaving school unable even to write, how can old bankers and the like make a worse hash of it than what the "traditional" teachers have been doing?
- D Woodstock, London
Any plan, any decision, anything at all planned by this government or any of its ministers is doomed to failure. All of them, and especially their leader, the UNELECTED dictator, Mr Brown, should all step down. Call an election. We have all had enough of them.
- Linda, LONDON ENGLAND
I can understand some people who have made a career in teaching feeling protective over the time they have spent in learning their trade. However, they do not understand how many skills can be transferred directly from private sector experience. I would suggest to them that many people who have vast experience of training people in the private sector and are used to man management and motivation, would be far more effective than most of the people who have just graduated as new teachers from university.
It's a given that the unions will be against anything attempting to threaten the status quo they have enjoyed for years. However the sad fact is that it is these very unions and the dogs dinner that the liberal progressives have made of the teaching and education profession that are in desperate need of being brought to task. A large real world awakening from the private sector will be hugely beneficial.
- Frank V, Croydon
Yet more dumbing down of this countries education system. What a sad state of affairs we are in.
- Dee Jay, Fleet Hampshire
6 months teacher training sounds as dizzy and unworkable as the banking practices which got us into this financial mess. Working with children is nothing like working in markets with stocks and shares and commodities. To make good teachers, and ones that don't burn out, people entering into this field have to begin to learn about children. And their development. A good teacher takes a lot of teaching.
- Chrissy, ealing
Personally if I could re-live my school days I think I'd rather have had a sprinkling of ex-City boys teaching me than some of the washed out has-beens I did have. Ex-City workers could be a lot more motivational for kids than teachers who've never experienced a world outside the classroom. They could tell them how life really is and as they are naturally ambitious people themselves this would rub off and enthuse the children. They also wouldn't be scared to shout at the children when they misbehaved, unlike most teachers nowadays who won't say boo to a goose.
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
Today’s teachers essentially go from pupil to Uni,and then from Uni to teaching, thinking they are teachers. Thus the majority of teachers have little experience of life as well as teaching. Combine this with a teaching ethos that is essentially feminine in structure along with less focused subject application, and one gets the mediocrity that permeates our system. The introduction of more rounded individuals who know their subject and can teach it with enthusiasm will only help. Of course the present approach to behaviour management may also undergo a much needed change with this injection of people who are more in touch with the behaviours needed to promote, the discipline needed to learn, that is if the system does not neuter them with its impotent approach to behaviour management. My wife teaches & constantly tells me that our educational system takes so long to teach so little that its dysfunctional & ends up dumbing down. Thus this initiative might deliver people who can teach better than incumbent teachers. Many will be natural who can teach naturally and more to the point, effectively. The government might actually produce an improvement once it dilutes the pretentiousness of many of today’s teachers with equally, and quite possibly, better qualified individuals who will bring to teaching its missing pragmatism.
- William, deal,kent
This scheme best suits those with relevant degrees and who are at the end of the City careers. The fact is the teaching unions do not like this because their cosy little club is being challenged. City people have often managed the brightest most driven difficult people and have had to show results or get fired. Teachers fail and nothing happens. The standard of English I see on CV's tells me everything, even graduates are barely literate!
- James Macleod Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove
Like all Gordon Brown’s pronouncements nowadays, this is electioneering and just like all the other announcements, this is to make you believe they are actually doing something.
This week’s Government announcements have been about expanding your rights and increasing employment. Something that the focus groups have highlighted that you the citizen are interested in.
As these are promises to prove your Labour Government is working with your best interest in mind, they are thinking of you, but that doesn’t mean they will do anything.
Meanwhile this deflection takes your mind off the seriousness of the mess they have made of the country.
Guess tomorrows imitative.
- Ian, Reading, England
Post graduate teacher training has normally lasted not much longer than 6 months ,if you take out the holidays.
They will bring different beneficial experiences to teaching . Id prefer that than a teacher who left school to go to Uni and then teach At least the ex bankers will know about real life. I belong to the generation taught by soldiers fast tracked to be teachers in the 5Os and 60s Where is the story?
- Terrry, hennebont France
Teaching is a vocation, like nursing. Before you train to teach, you must first learn how to deal with the behaviour of children, and how to motivate them to learn. This, I imagine, takes far longer than six months in itself.
- Yvonne, Doncaster, UK
Have tried to get into teacher training twice but each time told my 2:1 university degree is of no use due to it being in Archaeology and no funding is available to train for someone with my degree. Have been told only subjects which have a strong science or maths base are of any use.
What makes me laugh the most is these people the government are trying to fast track into teaching another generation have failed the country and nearly brought about system collapse, this is a total joke. I will never vote Labour ever again.
- D, Nottingham
Much as I agree that city workers could swell the ranks of teachers... I have to say the Government are mad. Six months? Get these crazy people off our backs. They have hurt the education system enough... Do they now want to completely collapse it?
- Maria, London
Presumably these workers won't be teaching economics?
- Bob, Cheam
It takes a special kind of person to make a good teacher,
and I wouldn't imagine this quality to be found in abundance in those who had chosen 'The City' route to material success!
- Huggy, cumbernauld glasgow
All these things seem to me like a urefire way to waste more money we dont have!
- Cat, Birmingham UK
I have rarely seen such rubbish. As a teacher with 20-odd years experiance, it is ludicrous that people should be shoved in front of a class after 6 months "training". It takes something like five years to collect and be familiar with the necessary skills to be able to teach properly - fact. In that time, you will probably have come across most of the situations you are likely to face and have strategies for the different types of students you are likely to have to teach. The job of teaching gets harder every day - current teacher training is woefully inadequate at the best of times, and this current suggestion is farcical. Students are increasingly idle, undisciplined, uninterested and less and less well-prepared for life after school. School, in many cases, makes things worse with ridiculous practices and useless subjects combined with ladybird-book assessment. INSET days are a good case in point - if teachers still need so much training, how can they possibly do the job after only 6 months-worth?
It`s a joke.
- Steve Hill, Derby, UK
Aren't these the same high-flying bankers who brought this country to it's knees. How therefore are they going to teach maths etc?!!!
- Sylvia, MARKET HARBOROUH
The government have neglected a hugh resource that is available to them in schools at the moment, the grade of HLTA (higher level teaching assistant, usually dedicated people that have woked in a teaching environment for years.
My wife is a HLTA and would love to be a teacher but she does not have a degree, she does however teach classes almost every day and specialises in precision teaching.
The children she works with think she is great, as do the parents and other teachers, but for the lack of a degree she cannot progress to being a teacher.
I am sure that she is not alone in this and she has worked hard to become an HLTA in a very demanding profession.
I think it is a disgrace that the government can overlook such a valuable resource and consider fast-tracking people that have no interest in teaching other than a means to get off the dole.
- Stephen Hastings, Southend on sea, UK
Brown strikes again.
They've fouled up the country.
Where can we put them out of harm's way?
- Mike, Coventry, England
I'm not a teacher, but surely what makes a good teacher is the ability to inspire, engage and communicate with kids. Yes, of course you need teachers with very good subject knowledge, but does "high flying" finance experience automatically make you a potentially good teacher? Look what these people have done to our economy!
- Simon Jackson, Northampton UK
