THE GENERAL Teaching Council should take over many of the Teacher Training Agency’s powers, ministers have been told.
Vice-chancellors, lecturers and secondary heads said teachers’ training and development should be part of the new body’s remit, with training courses funding returned to the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
But support for the agency - undergoing a review which many believe will lead to its disbandment - came from private training provider CfBT which praised it for breaking higher education’s grip.
And classroom teacher unions also backed the agency, saying the Department for Education and Employment was scapegoating it for its own failure to tackle the recruitment crisis.
The National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers have reservations about the GTC gaining too many powers. Olwyn Gunn of the NASUWT feared its independence would be compromised and the compulsory membership fees would rise.
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