I am not surprised that John Gray (TESS, last week) is offended by my recent analysis of the future for promoted posts in secondary schools. I can assure him, however, that my analysis was based on the post-McCrone agreement.
Chartered teachers are expensive. Some of the costs of the chartered teacher initiative will be found by reducing the number of promoted posts. In each school, different subjects will therefore have no promoted post holder to defend their place in the curriculum. This could result in the subjects on offer in each school changing for managerial rather than educational reasons.
I do not advocate these changes. I describe them so that John Gray and his peers can find acceptable arguments with which to protect their subject from neglect or demise.
Professor Douglas Weir Faculty of Education University of Strathclyde
