10:50pm Tuesday 29th September 2009
IF the Government has its way, from next year all teachers will have to apply for a licence to teach.
The proposals were made a few months ago, but already teachers and union officers in Essex are saying: “What’s the point?”
The MOT for teachers was just one of the initiatives unveiled in the Your Child, Your Schools, Our Future White Paper by Schools Secretary Ed Balls back in June.
The Licence to Teach, he stated, would boost public confidence by applying what happens in other high-status professions, like doctors and lawyers, to teachers, which in turn would give them an entitlement to continuous professional development.
Under the plans, qualified teachers and headteachers will face checks every five years to ensure they are fit to teach. They will have to demonstrate high standards of teaching and practice, coupled with ongoing professional development, to maintain their licence – or face losing it.
This will be initially introduced for newly-qualified teachers before being extended to the rest of the profession.
Overseen by the General Teaching Council for England, it will be headteachers who decide if a licence should be renewed, but according to Christine Rudland, headteacher for Montgomery Infants School in Colchester, this already happens.
She said: “There are enough systems in place to ensure high levels of teaching in our school, and I’m sure, in most others.
“It’s just another layer of stress put on teachers and all rather bureaucratic. I’ve been teaching for 40 years and I think it’s a bit much to ask me to now apply for a licence to do a job I have been doing that long.”
Kevin Prince, headteacher at St Helena School in Colchester, agreed. He said: “I’m all in favour of anything that improves the quality of teachers, but to have something like an MOT for teachers where you pass or fail just doesn’t work. It’s too simplistic.
“You need continuing support – not just a five-year checkover – and that’s what we do now. My real problem with this is the potential fear factor for teachers who will be worried about not getting their licence.”
Experts estimate more than 20,000 teachers are not fit to do their jobs, but only ten – out of a workforce of 500,000 – have been fired for incompetence since 2001.
Teaching unions have attacked the plan, saying teachers already faced numerous accountability measures.
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