Clegg Attacks Free Schools

Nick Clegg says that free schools
should work to the national curriculum
and hire only qualified teachers.

The debate over free schools has resurfaced with the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg now voicing his disapproval of the precise freedoms that they have. In particular, Clegg argues that they should not be allowed to recruit teaching staff who do not have a recognised teaching qualification. Additionally, he feels that these schools should be obliged to follow the national curriculum.

His comments come shortly after several controversial incidents at free schools. These include the now infamous Al-Madinah school in Derby, whose lessons were often failing to meet the requirements, according to a recent Ofsted report.

The Conservative part of the coalition government disagrees. It maintains that free schools have been outperforming schools in the mainstream state sector, and will continue to, simply because of the new freedoms they have been given. Education minister Liz Truss says that in the private school sector, appointments of non-qualified teachers has been the norm for "hundreds of years".

It is still early days for free schools. Some critics have gone further than Nick Clegg and suggested that academies and free schools are both stepping stones on the road to privatising education. Teaching unions have also voiced scepticism, suggesting that the government is trying to water down the status of professional teachers and discredit the teaching qualification.

Clearly it is possible for a school to use any freedoms in a positive and constructive way. On the other hand, without good leadership, a school that does not have the structure imposed by a national curriculum and the requirement to employ only qualified teachers, could find itself floundering, as has been shown.

What do you think about free schools? Let us know with your emails or comments.

Teacher Training Skills Test Toughened Up

The government has announced that the QTS skills tests in Maths, English and IT will be made tougher from next year. Passing these tests is a requirement for all teachers wishing to gain Qualified Teacher Status, which is in turn a requirement for teaching in any UK school.

The new tests have been developed by a panel of head teachers and teaching experts, following complaints that the current tests were too easy.

Every trainee teacher is required to pass the tests, even those wishing to teach unrelated subjects, such as Art and PE.

The government says that making the entry tests more rigorous will raise the quality and standing of the teaching profession. Education Secretary Michael Gove said "These changes will mean that parents can be confident that we have the best teachers coming into our classrooms. Above all, it will help ensure we raise standards in our schools and close the attainment gap between the rich and poor."

More complex mathematical problems and longer written exercises will become part of the tests. There will also be new questions on verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning. The pass mark will been raised.

Another aspect of this change is that fewer resits will be allowed, in line with Michael Gove's other education reforms. If the test has been failed three times, the candidate will not be allowed to take it again for 2 years.

They will be non-calculator tests and will require the trainee teacher to gain a score equivalent to a grade B at GCSE. They will also be taken before starting on the teacher training course, so becoming a pre-requisite to gaining a place on a course.

The teaching unions are unsure about the plans. Julia Neal, president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said: "If you're going to raise standards it's not just about recruiting teachers in the first place, it is actually keeping them and retaining them. I do think that sometimes there's a message going out which is really just undermining the profession. Are we saying that teachers at the moment aren't good enough because they haven't passed these tests? I do worry about the message that's going out about the profession."

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, made the point that this reform does not appear to align itself well with another of Gove’s ideas, allowing academies to hire unqualified teachers.

At MathsBank, we would give this particular reform a tentative thumbs-up. It is important to recruit teachers who have a certain level of academic ability. But teaching is about many things, not just academic excellence. A teacher must be a many-skilled individual, being able to engage and keep young people interested, to control a class and to handle the many stresses and pressures that being a teacher brings. And as Christine Blower pointed out: "The real issue is the training and support that teachers are given once they have entered into teaching training."

Let us know what you think. info@mathsbank.co.uk .

Gove Allows Unqualified Teachers into the Classroom

Michael Gove outside the Palace of Westminster (Photo: Wikipedia)

In another move that has angered the teaching profession and its unions, Education Secretary Michael Gove has given the green light for academies to recruit unqualified teachers into teaching positions.

All new academies sign an agreement with the Department for Education. From now on, this agreement will state that the school has the right to recruit whoever it believes to be qualified for a teaching role, removing the condition that the recruit must have QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). Existing academies may apply to have the new clause inserted into their agreements with the Department.

Academies now account for more than a half of all secondary schools in England, although they are much less prevalent in other parts of the UK. The move brings new academies into line with private schools and the government's free schools.

The Department says it expects the vast majority of recruited teachers still to have QTS status, and that it is allowing more flexibility, by allowing schools to hire people from a broader range of backgrounds.

In contrast, the feeling among the teaching profession is that Michael Gove is trying to de-professionalise teaching. The general secretary of the NUT, Christine Blower, has described it as a cost-cutting measure and a clear dereliction of duty.

Unions point to the fact that Mr Gove has in the past praised the education system of Finland, where teachers are respected and paid accordingly. In other countries where the required level of teaching qualifications is being watered down, such as Sweden, educational standards now appear to be falling.

Teachers know how rigorous and valuable their training is. They know that pupils do not respond as well to untrained teaching and that this applies both to the academic rigour required and to classroom management.

Many teachers also suspect that this is one step of a plan for further privatisation of the education sector, eventually allowing private companies to run the academies for a profit and offering a cut-price education, to compete with neighbouring schools.

This is another move that the Education Secretary has attempted to introduce by stealth, as a part of his creeping revolution of the UK's education system. But proposals such as this, with such far-reaching consequences, will not go unnoticed by the teaching profession. There will be trouble ahead.