Over two-fifths of teachers say that the training they have received for the government’s Prevent strategy lasted only an hour or less, according to a TES survey.
The finding comes despite MPs, unions and thinktanks all stressing the need for teachers to have better training in order to support the controversial counter-terrorism strategy.
Prevent requires teaching staff to identify children at risk of being radicalised, and to take action over concerning behaviour.
But out of more than 450 teachers who responded to TES’ snap survey this week, the biggest proportion - 41 per cent - said that they had received an hour or less of Prevent training in total.
And, of those respondents, more than half (53 per cent) felt that it was not enough.
A separate report, published today by education thinktank LKMco, highlights research showing that the support available to schools varies substantially and that many schools say staff need more training on preventing violent extremism.
“However, most training in the area is currently focused on senior leadership,” the report Can Schools Make Our Society More Cohesive? says.
The news follows warnings that teachers could make children more vulnerable to radicalisation if they apply the Prevent policy in an overly heavy-handed way.
The TES survey found that the biggest proportion - 35 per cent - of those with an hour or less of Prevent training, taught in state-maintained secondary schools.
One respondent said: “My training was an online read-and-click software package. That was it. Apparently, I am now qualified to spot and deal with potential radicalised students.”
Some of the examples were of animal rights activists
Overall, 38 per cent of teachers responding to the survey felt that their training had been insufficient.
Training for teachers was highlighted in a Home Affairs Committee report in July as one of the most important issues related to Prevent that needed to be addressed.
The report said: “The Prevent duty has placed a responsibility on educational establishments and other public bodies which they are finding very hard to fulfil.
“We are concerned about a lack of sufficient and appropriate training in an area that is complex and unfamiliar to many education and other professionals, compounded by a lack of clarity about what is required of them.”
It recommended that the Home Office should appoint an independent panel to reassess the Prevent training being provided to education and other professionals.
But the Home Office, which officially has two months to respond to committee reports, is yet to do so. In a response to TES, it declined to comment on whether it will take up the recommendation.
Risk of over-reaction
Many teachers in the survey felt there was an over-emphasis in the training they had received on the risks of Islamic terrorism, rather other types of radical views. However, others praised the training that they received and stressed their support for the Prevent strategy. The vast majority - 71 per cent - said that they backed the strategy.
Asked whether they felt confident identifying signs of radicalisation in their school, the majority - 61 per cent - said yes, but a significant 39 per cent said no.
There were 28 respondents in the survey who had made a referral about a student who they felt could be vulnerable to radicalisation.
According to a report by the Open Society Justice Initiative last month, there is a risk that teachers are “over-reacting” to signs that pupils could become radicalised, leading to children as young as four being “targeted”.
The Prevent strategy’s “erroneous targeting of individuals who are nowhere near being drawn into terrorism may make them more susceptible to that path”, the report said.
‘It’s an aspect of safeguarding’
Concerns about possible over-reactions have also been voiced by the NUT teaching union, which called on the government to withdraw Prevent at its conference in March.
But Patsy Kane, executive head of the Education and Leadership Trust academy chain in Manchester, told TES that she felt positive about the Prevent training that she had received.
“Some of the examples were of animal rights activists, and middle-class looking women,” she said. “That’s the point - there isn’t one type of person.”
“There are some very highly skilled and highly sophisticated people going through social media and manipulating the truth,” Ms Kane added. “Prevent is an aspect of safeguarding, just like e-safety, child protection and female genital mutilation.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Schools are best placed to determine the nature and level of training they require to meet their responsibilities under the Prevent duty.
“Training on Prevent is delivered in a range of ways - through e-learning packages as well as facilitated workshops.”
