§ Baroness Blatchasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress is being made on implementing the mandatory qualification for head teachers; and when is it to be made compulsory. [HL1378]
§ Baroness BlackstoneMore than 5, 850 candidates are undergoing training on the national professional qualification for headship; some 196 have already qualified. A further tranche will qualify later this month and the next recruitment round is due to open in April.
We recognise the crucial role played by heads in our schools. Our vision for a modernised teaching profession set out in the Green Paper, Teachers, meeting the challenge of change, published on 3 December 1998 aims to support better school leadership through the establishment of a new national college for school leadership and a national framework of headship training based on the best of the existing programmes.
The Green Paper made clear our intention to establish the requirement for all those new coming to headship to hold the national professional headship qualification by 2002. We continue to work to ensure that the qualification is fit for the purpose and that a sufficient pool of candidates is in place.