The Teacher Training Agency is anticipating an acute teacher shortage in a few years’ time. Redundant company executives are “to be lured into teaching” (TES, September 1).
During the past decade this Government has systematically cut back on education funding. As a result thousands of senior and experienced teachers have been ruthlessly offloaded via redundancy. Obviously this is a costly exercise both in financial and human terms.
Now, in what smacks of a desperate panic measure, the TTA, a Tory quango, is attempting to entice surplus industrialists into the classroom. I just hope that they have got the stamina and resilience to cope with the pressures of modern-day teaching in the state system.
It will certainly be a rude awakening for them and a far cry from the sheltered pace of their former company executive suites.
Incidentally I take it that these new recruits from business and industry will hold appropriate qualifications and that they will be suitably trained. If not this will be further evidence of the dilution of the teaching profession.
BILL BONNEN Independent education consultant 336 Haynes Park Court Slewins Close Hornchurch, Essex
