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Mr. Blunkett: The development of the college that I described will play a signal role in helping us to extend the NPQH. As hon. Members know, great enthusiasm for it has been expressed by heads. In the initial period we, together with the Teacher Training Agency, have been appraising how we can improve it and build on the experiences of head teachers.
We want to be able to fast-track those willing to undertake leadership, in order to allow them to do so on a modular basis and to accelerate their professional development. We want to put in place as heads those enthusiastic young men and women who see their role in education in the future and have the natural skills to lead the profession in the new century.
Mr. Tim Boswell (Daventry):
Does the Secretary of State recall that the 1995 Conservative Government's Blue Paper on teacher training began with the words
Nevertheless, may I raise two points with the right hon. Gentleman? The first is a technical one, relating to the basic skills requirements for teachers. Is it not high time that those were built into the standard suite of qualifications--the GCSE, A-level and degree level performance of teachers--so that they do not need re-examination? If anything, existing teachers may need some strengthening in that respect.
Secondly, does the Secretary of State accept that there is likely to be a severe strain on resources, both in assessment and in paying for this substantial pattern of incentives? If so, is there not a danger, while the proposals are being worked through, of a two-tier profession? They can in no sense be a substitute for the adequate
remuneration of ordinary classroom teachers who are doing their best and largely succeeding in doing a proper job for their pupils.
Mr. Blunkett:
I accept the hon. Gentleman's sensible questions in the spirit in which they were delivered. The lag between now and the underpinning of A-level and advanced year NVQ in respect of key skills must be addressed--hence the development of the literacy, numeracy and IT programme that I described. We must help mature entrants to catch up without feeling at a disadvantage.
The question of how we implement that is important. We will have performance management systems in place, which will be monitored by Ofsted and the Audit Commission. The performance management systems will be crucial to ensure that the appraisal and review are non-bureaucratic. The outside assessors will give consistency and fairness to the system, so that people cannot claim that there has been discrimination or the blocking of a teacher's application for movement through the threshold. It is important that we get that right in the early stages. If we can move quickly after the consultation period, I should like to start the appraisal and begin the assessment process before implementation in 2000 so that we can move people on to the new scales as quickly as possible.
Fiona Mactaggart (Slough):
Is my right hon. Friend aware of how welcome his promise to improve the environments in which teachers work will be? As a teacher who spent at least two years in an asbestos-riddled hut, I know how many of my colleagues would have been pleased to benefit from that.
I invite my right hon. Friend to use the opportunity that the proposals present to reconsider the requirements that university institutions put on entrants to the primary postgraduate certificate of education. I am concerned that such entrants are required to have degrees in national curriculum subjects. That requirement was introduced in advice by the previous Government.
There are, therefore, people with excellent degrees--in subjects such as modern languages, which do not apply in primary years but develop skills that are relevant to literacy teaching--who are not eligible for the primary PGCE. If we have ways of testing literacy and numeracy skills, as well as information and communications technology skills, there is a strong case for changing that requirement. Will my right hon. Friend consider doing so?
Mr. Blunkett:
I am very happy to tell my hon. Friend that we were concerned about the way in which that previous advice was being interpreted. My hon. Friend the Minister for School Standards has sent out a letter clarifying that, so that there will be no future misunderstandings. I hope very much that it will help to alleviate the problem.
My hon. Friend's question gives me the opportunity to pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Minister for School Standards. She and my advisers and officials have worked incredibly hard with me on the Green Paper, and I appreciate that greatly.
Mr. Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale, West):
The Secretary of State will be well aware that the results
Will the Secretary of State make it clear--I think that he gave such an assurance and I welcome it, if he did--that there is no upper limit on the number of teachers who can qualify, and that there will be consistent interpretation according to the quality of their performance and nothing else?
Will the Secretary of State also make it clear that schools or the local education authority will not have to fund the programme; and--this is important, given the large numbers involved--how quickly does he envisage all teachers who may qualify being able to go through the qualification period? What are the implications in terms of cost and the number of external assessors who need to be part of that programme?
Mr. Blunkett:
There were a large number of questions rolled into one there, so I shall be brief. I have made it clear previously and this afternoon that money in the initial stages would have to be ring-fenced and directed so that schools could afford to implement the programme. Obviously that will need to be consolidated; otherwise schools would accelerate every teacher whom the head thought was appropriate as quickly as possible, without any constraint whatever.
The hon. Gentleman should not presume that teachers in schools with high performance would automatically go through the threshold. Teachers who are doing a first-rate job in challenging areas with schools that have enormously challenging intakes may find themselves equally able to access the threshold and the progress that needs to be made. I hope that they do.
As I told the hon. Member for Daventry (Mr. Boswell), we have to get as many teachers as possible moving towards and through the threshold, to accord them the status that they deserve and to reward them for the work that they are doing.
Mr. Gordon Marsden (Blackpool, South):
I welcome my right hon. Friend's comprehensive statement. It is important to emphasise that it is comprehensive and not only about pay levels. Will he outline further the measures in the Green Paper for encouraging the collaboration of teachers to raise standards?
Mr. Blunkett:
The bonus system will encourage all staff to perform and work together, and the collaborative fund for small schools will complement the work that is already taking place. In education action zones, schools are beginning to collaborate and work co-operatively to develop ways of supporting and helping each other. They are establishing intranet systems, so that they can share information and advice. The more schools work together to lift standards for children rather than compete with each other in a marketplace, the better it will be for our students.
Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West):
When will the Secretary of State realise that my postbag is filled with complaints from head teachers and governing bodies as a consequence of his initiatives? Perhaps the most talented
Mr. Blunkett:
I am always slightly amused, if not mystified, by Conservative Members who say that good state heads and teachers are moving into the private sector and then criticise the measures that we are taking, which aim to match the standard and the methodology that the private sector claims to be using. Our proposals are aimed at providing good leadership, clear discipline, a decent environment, good equipment, low class sizes, and literacy and numeracy strategies that place emphasis on phonics, grammar and spelling--but they are opposed by Conservative Members.
Jacqui Smith (Redditch):
May I reassure my right hon. Friend that the reason I left the teaching profession in May 1997 was not that I was demoralised, but that the country was demoralised by the Conservative Government? Conservative Members have provided good evidence of that this afternoon. One of the most frustrating features of my 11 years in teaching was the reduction in the funding and opportunities for professional development and training, so I welcome my right hon. Friend's announcement on individual learning accounts for teachers. Will he outline how those accounts will be administered, when we can expect them and when teachers can begin to benefit from the effects they will have on professional development and improving standards?
"In education the role of the teacher is central"?
Any aspects of his proposals that stimulate higher standards in the teaching profession, if fulfilled, will be welcome to us.
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