5/30/2008 8:38:00 AM
SUPPLY TEACHERS ‘SHOULD BE BANNED FROM SCHOOL’
TES 30 May
And too many trainees are not born to teach, says professor Supply teachers should be banned from British schools, according to a leading education academic. David Burghes, professor of maths education at Plymouth University, called for schools to follow Continental practices and end the need for supply cover by dividing absent teachers’ pupils among their colleagues. They should also ensure that any staff training took place outside the school day. Professor Burghes, former head of the Government’s Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, also claimed there was a “big question mark” over the quality of teachers joining the profession. He was speaking at a conference organised by the think tank Politeia, which asked, “Is there a crisis in the profession?” Contributors claimed that teachers did not have the qualifications they needed to do the job. Professor Burghes warned about the standard of new recruits. “My worry is that we are recruiting too many people who are not born to be teachers,” he said. “They are not the kind of people I would want teaching my grandchildren.” He said he also had concerns over supply teachers being able to control classes properly. “I go to most countries in Europe and they wouldn’t understand what a supply teacher is because they don’t exist there,” he said. “But here we have companies making millions out of this. Supply teachers should be banned from our schools.” There are 12,800 teachers listed as in occasional service – short-term supply for under a month – and still more supply teachers have longer contracts. John Dunn, director of Select Education, the country’s biggest teacher supply agency, said supply teachers were an efficient way of using taxpayers’ money. “The cost of a supply teacher is only there when the need is,” he said. “If we had sufficient staff in schools to provide cover when the need arose, then on the days when you didn’t need cover you would have too many staff.” Chris Woodhead, the former chief schools inspector, told the conference that teacher training was “stuffed full of distractions”, and that trainees should be able to spend all of their time thinking about their subject, instead of learning about how to teach pupils with special educational needs or English as a second language. TES
IMAMS ASKED INTO SCHOOLS
TES 30 May
Teachers and clerics to be part of new drive against extremists Schools will be asked to help “win hearts and minds” in the battle against violent extremists. Ministers believe that lessons from Muslim clerics could steer pupils away from radicalisation. The Government will suggest next week that heads draft in British-born imams to teach citizenship so that pupils learn about the Koran and Islam in the context of a multicultural society. Officials say the lessons could include “discussing rights of neighbours, the sacredness of life or the importance of equal opportunities”. The idea is one of the solutions for schools suggested in the Prevent Strategy, to be published in conjunction with the Home Office, and aimed at stopping people from supporting extremists. It comes in the wake of last week’s Exeter restaurant bombing, which police suspect was the work of a British-educated convert to Islam, and the July 7, 2005 London attacks by home-grown terrorists, including a teaching assistant. Writing in today’s TES, Ed Balls, the Children, Schools and Familes Secretary, said: “A very small number of young people of school age may already be at risk of being drawn into criminal activity inspired by violent extremists. Education can be a powerful weapon against this.” Department officials say using Saturday sessions run by extended schools to offer extra specialist maths and science classes could be another opportunity for imams to deliver “faith based citizenship lessons” on Islam. They stress the extra classes would be funded through local authority rather than school budgets. The National Union of Teachers met fierce opposition in March when it suggested Muslim clerics and other faith leaders should be sent into every state school as an alternative to having specific faith schools. Heads’ leaders and other critics warned this could allow extremists to target pupils. But the Government believes that if the imams are British born they will be steeped in the multicultural values of Britain. TES
STRIKE BAN WOULD BE A ‘KINDNESS’
TES 30 May
Calls are being made for teachers to be banned from taking industrial action, as the National Union of Teachers considers further strikes. Alan Smithers, professor of education at Buckingham University, said the Government should stop teachers from taking industrial action as a “kindness”. “Teachers don’t seem to realise that they’re shooting themselves in the foot by striking, so it would be good if the Government took the decision to ban it for them,” he said. The Centre for Policy Studies, a centre-right think tank, said schools should be allowed to fire staff who went on strike. Jill Kirby, its director, said: “If you have a teacher who is not sufficiently committed, who wants to strike and deny children an education, schools should be allowed to permanently replace them.” The calls coincide with moves to limit strikes in France, by forcing teachers to provide a “minimum service”.In Britain, a change this month made it illegal for prison officers – like the military – to go on strike. The police have a no-strike rule, but voted this month to abandon it over pay. The NUT decided last week to consider balloting for further strike action in the autumn. Its members walked out for a day last month in protest at a 2.45 per cent pay rise, which they said effectively amounted to a pay cut. Christine Blower, acting general secretary, said the NUT would work with other public sector unions to “bring the Government to its senses”. “When other avenues are exhausted and fail to produce an appropriate response, strike action is justifiable,” she said. TES
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