Unqualified Teachers (Hansard, 1 November 1988)

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, on 24th May my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science issued a consultation document proposing the reform of existing routes to qualified teacher status other than by the successful completion of an initial teacher training course in England or Wales. Responses to the consultation document were requested by 14th October. My right honourable friend will now give most careful consideration to those responses.

§ Lord Dormand of Easington
My Lords, is it not farcical to believe that the in-service training now being proposed can compare with the normal three years full-time training given to teachers? Is the Minister aware that the proposal could cause great damage to thousands of children? After nine years in power, and being aware of the well-known fact that there has been a shortage of teachers in certain subjects, why has something more effective not been done before now?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, local education authorities currently may employ unqualified teachers who are granted QTS (qualified teacher status) under existing regulations without obligation of on-the-job training. Our proposals would make 84 existing routes more rigorous by making training obligatory for those not qualified overseas. I can assure the noble Lord that if a licensed teacher's performance was unsatisfactory, he or she would not be granted qualified teacher status and would not be allowed to remain in teaching.

§ Lord Glenamara
My Lords, is the Minister aware that my proudest achievement was to end the employment of unqualified teachers in schools and that the Government in this respect, and in most other things, are putting the clock back? Would the noble Lord send his watch to be repaired by an unqualified watch repairer, his car to be repaired by an unqualified mechanic or his television to be repaired by an unqualified television mechanic? Why then must people be required to send their children to be taught in school by unqualified teachers?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, we are putting the clock forward. Local education authorities and schools will not want to apply for a licence for anyone unless they are satisfied that the candidate has the qualities that are needed, reinforced by on-the-job training, to become a good teacher. Induction arrangements should ensure that unsatisfactory appointees are weeded out.

Lord Morris
My Lords, following on from the previous supplementary question will my noble friend agree that teaching is an art and not a science? Will he also agree that in the experience of most people far and away the best teachers, although very very experienced, have been nowhere near a university let alone a teacher training college?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I do not believe that I should enter into a philosophical discussion. We are encouraging local education authorities to look more closely at qualified but out-of-service teachers near their schools who might wish to return to teaching, some on a part-time basis. A surprising number of older people in other careers would like to switch to teaching and we should continue to encourage them to enter initial teacher training.

§ Lord Parry
My Lords, will the Minister accept that a great many people in the teaching profession who are well qualified are conscious of the fact that their qualifications are dated and that they themselves do not believe that the education system—and there is some qualification of that in recent research—is adequate to the task they are carrying out? Can the noble Lord tell us a little more about two points in his statement? What was the level of response to the request for submissions for which a very short space of time was allowed after the paper was issued? How will the Minister determine whether the qualified people are qualified?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I am afraid that the consultation document and licensed teacher proposals have been widely misinterpreted. Of the 230 or so responses received, the vast majority accept the need for some reform of existing non-standard routes to qualified teacher status and broadly 85 welcome my right honourable friend's proposal to replace them with some streamlined route.

§ Lord Peston
My Lords, I welcome the Government's view that one ought to encourage older people back into teaching—or into teaching in the first place. Does the noble Viscount not agree that qualification and training are of fundamental importance? Is the Minister not aware how much of many people's education in certain subjects, of which mathematics is the perfect example—and this will apply to many Members of your Lordships' House—was ruined because they were taught by people who simply did not know how to teach? Does he not agree that that is a very serious matter?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I agree that that was the position, but it will not be so in the future.

§ Lord Parry
My Lords, will the Minister accept that the House cannot accept that kind of casual dismissal?

Lord Paget of Northampton
My Lords, can the noble Viscount tell us whether the masters at our great schools are qualified and who qualifies them? In my day the general impression was that they were appointed by the headmaster and I never heard of any qualification being necessary.

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I am afraid that I cannot answer that question today.

§ Lord McNair
My Lords, does the noble Viscount remember that on 19th July a Mrs. Rumbold in another place said that 90 per cent. of the teaching force would continue to come through the normal route, which I believe is described in the consultative document as Route A? Is the figure of 10 per cent. as the number of teachers from another route still roughly correct?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, the vast majority, well over 90 per cent., of entrants to teaching will continue to be graduates.

§ Viscount Hanworth
My Lords, will the noble Viscount agree that at universities most undergraduates are taught by unqualified teachers and that very little has been done even to hold seminars in universities to teach how to teach?

§ Viscount Davidson
No, my Lords, I would not accept that.