Initial teacher training (ITT) should and must evolve in order to maintain and sustain educational standards for current and future generations of pupils – but there have been fundamental problems with the approach taken in the government’s ITT market review so far, argues University Alliance, the voice of technical and professional universities.
Responding to the Department for Education’s consultation on their Initial Teacher Training market review, University Alliance have outlined problems which they argue are inherent in the recommendations, and which will make implementation incredibly challenging. These include:
- A lack of meaningful collaboration and engagement with the sector in order to build trust and understanding of the true complexities and nuances involved in delivering teacher training thereby bringing the key agents of change on this important journey collectively to evolve teacher training together.
- An absence of clear and compelling evidence to demonstrate what exactly the quality issues are with the current teacher training system that have led to this review.
- A lack of acknowledgement of the true challenges of the wider socio-economic landscape facing early years, primary and secondary education and educators which unless recognised and dealt with will hinder the realisation of the aims and objectives of this review and at worst could exacerbate the levels of deprivation experienced across the country leading to greater disparity in educational outcomes for children and young people across the country.
Vanessa Wilson, CEO of University Alliance said:
“Whilst we fully support the context and aims of the review to drive up educational standards and to ensure all trainee teachers receive first-class teacher training, we fear that failing to collaborate meaningfully with the Higher Education sector and acknowledge the diversity of the challenges facing schools throughout the UK will ultimately break the teacher training system and exacerbate teacher supply issues.”
You can read the full consultation response here
