The National Association for the Teaching of English (Nate) would like to echo the concerns regarding cuts to PGCE course numbers as outlined in “Closure is on the cards for hundreds of PGCE courses” (20 January).
Further, it’s not just non-Ebac subjects that are suffering in this regard - the core ones are, too. Nate is concerned about these cuts, especially as they appear to contradict findings by Ofsted. Last year’s annual report by the inspectorate stated that there was more outstanding teacher training provision led by universities than by any other route. Given this, it is hard to understand the justification for this reduction. It would appear to be ideologically driven rather than evidence-based. One consequence of the cuts in allocations may be to make some English PGCE courses unviable, leading to their closure. Were this to happen, then invaluable expertise would be lost and established training and research infrastructures destroyed.
Simon Gibbons, Nate chairman.