Disappointment at Initial Teacher Training review

Voice Community – the education section of Community Union – is disappointed by the overall direction of the Government’s reforms to initial teacher training (ITT) following its ITT Market Review.

Community Assistant General Secretary (Voice Section) Deborah Lawson said:

“Although there has been recent engagement resulting in some minor amendments, the Department for Education has not yet addressed the concerns set out in the joint letter from the education unions, which raised our concerns that the Government’s proposals could cause fundamental and irreparable damage to the supply of high-quality teachers to our schools.

“No one would argue against the aspiration for a highly trained workforce but, as we stated in our joint letter, we don’t understand the problem the review sought to address.

“We don’t believe these so-called reforms do anything to address repeated failures to meet ITT targets.

“We would like to see an ITT programme developed in association with universities, ITT providers, schools and unions that prioritises an enquiring mind and the ability to react and respond to pupils’ needs and provides the support and resources that are needed to make this a success.

“The market review does not address our concerns about accountability, workload and teacher pay and we fear that until these are properly addressed, teachers will continue to leave the profession in droves.”