§ Mr. Corrieasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement about his plans for the pre-service training of primary and secondary teachers in Scotland.
§ Mr. Maclennanasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is his policy towards introducing a four-year degree qualification for primary teachers in Scotland.
§ Mr. YoungerI now propose to introduce major changes which will lead to primary teaching becoming an all-graduate profession and ensure that the training of secondary teachers is tailored to the needs of the 1980s and 1990s. Taken as a whole, these measures will secure an important improvement in the already high quality of the teaching profession in Scotland.
On 6 August 1980 I announced my intention that entry to the primary teaching profession should be on an all-graduate basis. I indicated that I was initiating consultations on the best way of achieving this and our consultative document issued on the same day canvassed views on a number of options. The response showed that there was general support for the replacement of the existing three-year diploma course by a new four-year degree course combining academic studies and professinal training. I am satisfied that, together with other changes which I propose, this can be achieved with no increase in total public expenditure.
I intend, therefore, to invite the General Teaching Council for Scotland, the colleges of education, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the teacher 202W associations to be represented, with officials of my Department, on a working party to prepare guidelines for the content and structure of an appropriate four-year degree course. I propose that the working party should examine further the possibility—discussed in the consultative document of August 1980—of introducing a flexible type of course affording more than one career outlet. I envisage that entry to the new type of degree course will begin in the 1984–85 academic session. From that session onwards there would be no further intake either to the three-year primary diploma course or to the present BEd courses leading to a teaching qualification in primary education, although students who had already commenced such courses would be permitted to complete them.
I shall ask the working party also to consider what improvements might be introduced within the existing one-year primary postgraduate course. This course is a valuable way of training teachers—particularly, though not exclusively, for the upper primary classes—and I intend that a substantially increased proportion of students will in future be trained by that route. I envisage that, in time, about 55 per cent. of primary teachers will come from the new four-year degree course and about 45 per cent. from the postgraduate course. This mix will, in my view, achieve a reasonable balance of trained teachers in the primary school.
In March 1982 my Department issued a consultative paper which proposed that from the beginning of the 1983–84 session there should be no further intake to general secondary BEd courses. The paper sought views also on the possible rationalisation of provision of the one-year secondary postgraduate courses by which the majority of prospective entrants to secondary teaching are trained.
I fully recognise that graduates from the general BEd courses have made a valuable contribution to teaching in the secondary schools. Nevertheless, having regard to the small number of teachers who now qualify by this particular route, I have decided that after the current academic session there will be no further intake to general secondary BEd courses, although students who have started such courses will be allowed to complete their training. My decision to end the general BEd courses does not affect the specialist BEd courses in physical education.
I am asking my Department to pursue further, in collaboration with the colleges of education concerned, the desirability and feasibility of effecting some measure of rationalisation of the one-year secondary postgraduate courses.
With regard to a number of miscellaneous points:
- a. I shall be entering into consultations with the General Teaching Council for Scotland on the minimum qualifications in English and mathematics required of prospective teachers.
- b. My Department has already initiated a major research project at Moray House college of education on "Criteria for Teacher Selection". This is an important area and I await the findings with interest.
- c. It is my intention also that arrangements should be made for the external validation of all postgraduate courses of initial teacher training, both primary and secondary.
The measures which I have announced constitute a very major change to the teacher training system in Scotland. I am confident that my decisions will ensure that the high reputation of Scottish schooling is upheld in the years ahead.