Opinion: Training-lite teachers

At first glance it might seem like a great solution. Lots of redundant city high-flyers looking for teaching jobs; lots of teaching vacancies. Why not speed up the course and get them into those empty classrooms as quickly as possible? After all they are intelligent, capable and fast learners.

First, according to the NUT, nearly a third of all Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) leave by the end of their first year, an astonishing attrition rate. If so many leave so soon, clearly the current one-year course does not prepare them for the realities of classroom life.

Second, what will be left out of the streamlined course? Probably teaching practice - the one thing that can't be taught in a theory class. The less time trainee teachers spend in the classroom, the less familiar they are going to be with children and the more likely that they drop out, particularly those who are moving industries.

Third, the issue of what's wrong with the current PGCE course can't be discarded. A lot is currently crammed into this one-year course but much is left out, for instance cultural diversity. The Government surveyed trainee teachers and they overwhelmingly said they needed training on this. A lack of understanding of other cultures is likely to contribute to teachers being unable to manage behaviour in urban schools, those with the highest NQT drop-out rates.

I believe the Government is storing up trouble for itself when the first crop of 'training-lite' teachers hit the classrooms. The drop-out rate for these under-prepared teachers is likely to be much higher than it is now. If a one year course is failing to do the job of adequately preparing trainee teachers for today's classrooms, how is a six-month course going do better?