Teacher Training (Hansard, 10 March 1999)

§ Ms Estelle Morris

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has set new requirements to improve initial teacher training (ITT). These represent a major step change in the expectations and requirements of new teachers and include:

(a) new high standards for the award of Qualified Teacher Status introduced for all trainees graduating from May 1998. These ensure that all new teachers have the necessary knowledge, understanding and skills to do their job effectively;
(b) national curricula in primary English and mathematics and the effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) in subject teaching for all trainees introduced from September 1998;
(c) national curricula in secondary English and mathematics and science for all phases will come into force in September 1999;
(d) an induction year was introduced by the Teaching and Higher Education 1998 Act. This will give all new teachers, from September 1999, structured support and training to consolidate and extend the skills they gained in initial training. Teachers who fall short of the standards will not be able to be confirmed as members of the profession.

The Teacher Training Agency (TTA) has been asked to support the introduction of the new requirements and has been funded to undertake a range of measures, which include:

(a) development of exemplification materials to assist in the implementation of the national curriculum for ICT in all subjects and phases, to ensure accurate assessment of trainees against the standards (including video and CD ROM formats) and the requirements in the standards concerned with teaching pupils from ethnic minority groups;
(b) assisting providers to improve the quality of their provision. The Agency is in the process of producing material to assist providers in auditing trainees' subject knowledge in English and mathematics and to improve the partnerships between higher education institutions and schools;
(c) mounting conferences for providers to brief them on the new requirements and to assist all new providers in developing course proposals;
(d) visiting all ITT providers with unsatisfactory or borderline Ofsted report grades and assists them to develop a programme for improvement;
(e) assisting in the development of trainees ICT skills through the provision of intensive two day ICT courses for all those trainees who have to follow the new curriculum need additional help.

To support the implementation of the new curriculum for the use of ICT across the curricula the TTA to date has awarded ITT providers with additional funding totalling just over £6 million. A further £1 million was awarded for the implementation of the primary English and maths curricula. Other costs of developing the national curricula and exemplification materials fall within TTA's budget and are not disaggregated.

Our Green Paper on the modernisation of the teaching profession, "Teachers: meeting the challenge of change", published in December, sets out major new proposals to strengthen teacher training further as part of modernising the profession.

We are also giving priority to skilling serving teachers and have backed this with some £500 million in the Standards Fund this year, the majority of which supports in-service training.