Green Paper may make staffing crisis more acute, warns John Howson
Are national teacher-training targets a waste of time? After all, management teams may now have to revise timetables following the 14-19 Green Paper reforms.
Who will teach the proposed travel and tourism or science manufacturing GCSEs? A school might wish to switch a geographer to teach travel and tourism, and look for a science specialist with a PGCE and industrial experience to teach the other course.
Like many government initiatives, this one seems not fully thought through. Introducing a revamped curriculum without new teacher-training courses, or re-training existing staff, is a recipe for tragedy. Doing so, when many schools already have staffing problems, only compounds difficulties. Students who opt for the new subjects deserve teachers who are as well-trained and committed as those teaching any other subject.
As for staffing the existing curriculum, applications to train on PGCE courses in England and Wales are up almost across the board. Only in RE were applications down. Fewer men had applied for PGCE courses in languages and music, but this was offset by an increase in women’s applications.
More men have applied to be primary teachers than at this time last year, but the number of applications from women has also increased. It is too soon to say whether or not more men will be accepted, but, with 1,500 extra places for primary teachers this year, it seems a likely outcome.
Among secondary subjects, the rise in applications for English PGCE courses - the subject qualified for “golden hellos” last year - has continued. But what makes a subject eligible for “golden hellos” and when does it cease to qualify? Judging by current applications RE, and possibly music, could both qualify while English might be a candidate for removal.
It is two years since the training grant was set at pound;6,000. Is it not time to review this figure and to include an extra London allowance as schools in the capital face the worst staffing problems?
John Howson is a visiting professor at Oxford Brookes University and managing director of Education Data Surveys. Email: john.howson@lineone.net
