Teachers: Initial Training (Hansard, 26 April 1988)

HL Deb 26 April 1988 vol 496 cc120-1 120

§ 3.2 p.m.

§ Lord Taylor of Blackburn asked Her Majesty's Government:

§ What is their reaction to the recently published report by HM Inspectorate of Schools entitled Quality in Schools: Initial Training of Teachers.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Education and Science (Baroness Hooper)
My Lords, this report was welcomed when it was published in April last year. It has been followed up by a national conference and a series of regional conferences stressing the partnership between the providers of initial teacher training, the local education authorities and practising teachers in schools. There have also been follow-up discussions between the department, HMI and representatives of the main teacher training associations.
HMI will shortly be publishing a further report of initial teacher training in universities. This means that over the past five years we have had a 100 per cent. survey of the institutions involved in teacher training.

§ Lord Taylor of Blackburn
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Perhaps I may go a stage further and ask whether, when the second report of 121 HMI is published, the Minister will again go through the same procedure of holding consultations with the various bodies concerned, taking into account the changes that have taken place over the past few years in the teaching profession and the anticipated changes in the Education Reform Bill.

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, yes. In fact, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science announced in another place in November last year that he intended before the end of 1989 to review the criteria for the approval of courses which were set out in DES Circular 3/84 and to consider what the future arrangements should be for the review and approval of courses of initial teacher training. This will take into account both the HMI reports.

§ Baroness David
My Lords, perhaps I may ask the Minister whether either of these reports will help encourage more secondary teachers to go into training. I understand that there has been a significant drop, in particular in the shortage subjects: 17 per cent. in maths; 18 per cent. in biology and 20 per cent. in physics.

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, we hope that it will encourage a number of new entrants. The Government are doing a great deal in connection with encouraging mature students to enter teacher training.

§ Lord Orr-Ewing
My Lords, can my noble friend say whether at the completion of the course the examination is now of the right standard so that teachers are fully qualified to teach special subjects and also at the same time to keep order in classes? Are we sure that the standard should not be steadily improved so that we get a better type of teacher, better qualified to teach the coming generations?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, I think it is the policy of this Government always to try to improve upon the best. Certainly, so far as concerns accreditation, the then Secretary of State, my noble friend Lord Joseph, set up the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education in 1984 to advise the holder of his office on whether individual courses met the criteria which were set out in the DES circular to which I have referred. Some of these criteria are designed to eradicate the deficiencies which were noted in the first HMI report. So we are seeking to improve the situation the whole time.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, does the Minister not agree that the HMI report of last year which she quoted stated that 80 per cent. of Britain's schools were well disciplined and well organised?

§ Baroness Hooper
Yes, my Lords. there are a number of good things which go on in the education system which are predominant. It is the minority of difficult cases which always attracts publicity. Certainly it is that minority of cases which the Government are dealing with in the Committee of Inquiry into Discipline in Schools which has recently been set up.