Education Secretary Nicky Morgan is expected to acknowledge increasing teachers’ workloads in her speech at the Conservative Party conference this week, in a bid to win back support. It is also anticipated she will announce an extension from two to three years of initial teacher training. However, Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt told the Guardian the Government was “refusing to deal with the main issue, which is having unqualified teachers in the classroom”.
Insistence that all teachers in publically funded schools should have Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) has become a cornerstone of Labour’s education policy, saying that teacher quality in academy and free schools has slipped under the current Government’s policy of no requirement for QTS.
And while the Conservatives maintain there is no evidence of this and that schools should be free to decide who they employ, they may be feeling some heat on the issue, having appointed a review panel to consult on initial teacher training (ITT), chaired by Sir Andrew Carter.
