Examination of Witnesses (Question 100)
MR DAVID
BELL, MRS
MIRIAM ROSEN,
MR ROBERT
GREEN, MR
MAURICE SMITH
AND MS
9 NOVEMBER 2005
Q100 Chairman: The very last thing:
what is coming through our reports, and we will come back to this,
is a question-mark over what on earth is going on in teacher training.
In terms of teaching children to read—the amount of time
that was devoted to child development, the readiness of a child
to learn to read, the different ways of teaching a child to read—we
picked up evidence that there was a very small amount of the curriculum
for teacher training in that area. We have seen the same repeated
today in terms of citizenship. We suspect it is also the same
in respect of out-of-school education. Do you have concerns about
what actually is given as a range of skills to the people that
we train as teachers?
Mr Bell: It continues to be a
tall order, Chairman, to prepare young teachers, and they are
not always necessarily young in age these days because we have
a much more diverse population coming in, to do all the things
that they need to do. We have commented that certainly since the
nineties, through successive inspection programmes, the quality
of teacher education has improved. Teachers in lots of ways are
more prepared, and I think head teachers will often say this to
the next generation, the current generation that is coming out
of training are well prepared. There will always be an issue,
Chairman, about what the content of their training should be,
but in a sense that is the responsibility of the Department with
the Training and Development Agency, and, of course, we do inspect
teacher education.
Chairman: Chief Inspector, we have covered
a lot of territory today. You will be back to see us soon on special
education, I believe. Thank you very much. We will see you again
soon. Would you thank all of your team.
|
