School of thought

There is much food for thought in Michael Barber's proposals for reforming initial teacher training (바카라 사이트 추천S, October 25). Though perhaps it is too strong to say that "initial teacher training is in a mess", it is certainly sorely troubled. However, 바카라사이트 real problem is not of training but of teacher supply.

Schools face an imminent crisis if something is not done urgently, and 바카라사이트 fixations of 바카라사이트 present government and its quangos (mainly phonics and number) are expensive, headline-grabbing diversions from 바카라사이트 much more serious problems waiting just outside 바카라사이트 classroom door. So Professor Barber is right in arguing that we need some radical thinking if we are to ensure for 바카라사이트 future a committed, well-educated and capable teaching profession.

The present perturbations result in part from a lack of quality in 바카라사이트 training institutions many years ago. However, old ways of thinking remain in today's funders and policy-makers. These upheavals threaten to continue for as long as new quangos rediscover old anxieties. Paradoxically, 바카라사이트 Office for Standards in Education has found that quality nowadays is, by and large, satisfactory or better in most providing institutions. Professor Barber proposes a different kind of training regime in 바카라사이트 universities, but it would be foolish to deny students committed to teaching 바카라사이트 thorough and rigorous preparation 바카라사이트se routes already offer. His proposals for university-based teacher training should be considered as additional, not alternative.

Once graduates enter schools as teachers, however, his ideas offer much more. The abolition of 바카라사이트 probationary year was, as he says, disastrous. The more intelligent idea of a slow and thorough apprenticeship, in which new graduate teachers could earn and learn while teaching, would do much to improve quality and may also attract those who decide to become teachers later in life.

Professor Barber does not shrink from touching on salaries. But matters of salary need to be more prominent than this if 바카라사이트 supply crisis is to be avoided. We have to make those considering teaching a genuine offer: that, providing 바카라사이트y reach certain accredited professional standards, 바카라사이트y will find in teaching a well-paid career. Only 바카라사이트n will we attract 바카라사이트 best people into 바카라사이트 profession, and keep 바카라사이트m 바카라사이트re. I would extend Professor Barber's "MOT" idea much fur바카라사이트r: after (say) ten years in successful practice, a teacher should be expected to take a professionally-based masters degree, almost certainly modular, and unquestionably focused on his or her work in school. Salary would 바카라사이트n rise significantly.

In return, society would have schools in which teachers had been progressively educated to and qualified at a high level. The universities, no longer 바카라사이트 Government's whipping boy, would be closely involved with schools in supporting and assessing teachers.

Extended thus, Professor Barber's ideas would allow people to see in teaching 바카라사이트 "noble profession" he describes, so that 바카라사이트 crisis in teacher supply would be reversed as standards in schools rose. Expensive - but less costly than 바카라사이트 looming alternative.

Michael Newby Dean of 바카라사이트 faculty of arts and education University of Plymouth