Unqualified Teachers

[everychildmatters]

Why is there not complete outrage re the above? I'd rather my daughter not be "taught" full-time by someone who potentially does not need one formal qualification to their name.
I'm glad I walked out of teaching profession last year after 20 years in.
Enough is enough.

I can't believe there isn't more outrage over the new Education Bill, probably though because most parents don't read/understand it. Same resson for lack of concern about unqualified teachers, because they simply aren't aware it happens. Or the amount of supply teachers their kids get even in GCSE years.
So many parents just pack their kids off to school and assume things are OK without bothering to actually find out if they are.

@twistyizzy I agree totally with you. I wonder how many parents actually know what's going on here? And if so, would they be OK with their child being taught by someone unqualified?

I'm not clear what the outrage is about.

Unless I have missed a recent development, the current Bill aims to put a stop to the current arrangements which allow Academies to recruit unqualified teachers. Isn't that what you want?

@Fifthtimelucky There will still be unqualified teachers "teaching". They will use existing staff if needs be.

What do you mean by unqualified? Doesn't have QTS or doesn't have A-levels or a degree in the subject? I have QTS and been teaching my degree subject for 25 years. This year I'm also teaching textiles, graphics and engineering and am learning a day or two before the lesson. Not ideal but someone needs to deliver the lesson.

@menopausalmare Technically anybody can be employed as an "unqualified teacher" - no qualifications needed. They're cheap though, wonderful for the budget.

I left my job in a school - a job I loved - after 12 years, because management were threatening to put us science technicians in front of classes. No training, no behaviour management, no extra help. And no extra money. On science technician wages I was going to be expected to control and teach classes of more than thirty kids of all ages and abilities.

I actually have an A level in Biology, but I did that more than thirty years ago. I left rather than be subjected to what I saw teachers having to put up with.

It would be the end of the Teach First model if unqualified teachers couldn't teach (not that some teachers would mourn that).

@Fitzcarraldo353 Do you need any qualifications to access Teach First? I've no idea as went the degree to PGCE route over 20 years ago.

You need a degree .

But teachfirst put people in schools without any teaching qualifications.

Teach first teachers learn on the job

l remember when they wanted all teachers to have an MA/MSc.

Now anyone can do it apparently. Surely to educate you need to be educated to at least degree level

Teach First is a teacher training program which is very different to unqualified teachers being hired to teach with no training program.

Some of those who are basically volunteering to teach in schools are underpaid and undervalued as it is and can also ‘teach’ better in some cases than those with a PGCE. There’s an education crisis and a teaching crisis in this country…so it doesn’t make me outraged at all. Also, they want to do a push for recruiting PGCE trainee’s but it’s very hard to actually get on a course. Just because someone has a qualification to their name doesn’t mean they can actually deliver that training appropriately or effectively.

Exactly. They do the summer institute few weeks of training and then start in September with an 80% teaching timetable (bit less for primary) as the class teacher, teaching from day one. They get support and training but they won't get QTS until the end of that year.

You might want to look at the thread where the teacher is on a 60% timetable and the other 40% of the time their classes are being taken by a cover supervisor, so not only not a teacher, but someone who isn't really capable of teaching.

@menopausalmare my daughter is in a similar position (though is much newer to teaching). She has a degree in psychology, a PGCE and QTS. But as well as teaching psychology she teaches sociology and health & social care, neither of which she has any qualifications in at all.

It doesn't seem impossible to me that someone with 20 years experience of working in health and social care might do a better job of teaching it than my daughter.

More generally, it has been the case for years that schools could recruit people with special skills or experience if they couldn't recruit a qualified teacher. My mother in law is an example. She was an unqualified drama teacher in the 1970s. She had no qualifications higher than GCSE equivalent but many years of being involved in amateur dramatics productions.

The arrangements are most commonly used for vocational subjects I think. I bet the needlework, cookery, woodwork, metalwork typing, shorthand and "animal husbandry" teachers in my school in the 1970s were not qualified teachers!

@everychildmatters Hopefully you know that "unqualified" in this context means they don't have a teaching qualification, not that they don't have any qualifications?

Private schools often hire teachers without QTS. Academies have been allowed to do the same, but it is down to the professional judgement of headteachers how they use that freedom, if they use it at all. The numbers are very low. Quoting from an article in TES on Jan 31st: "The proportion of unqualified teachers in academies in 2023 was 3.6 per cent, the DfE says - slightly higher than the 2.5 per cent in maintained schools."

I think parents do become outraged when teaching at their children's schools is poor, but they are obviously unlikely to know the details of any individual teacher's qualifications.

Private schools are full of unqualified teachers. A PGCE or a B.Ed, doesn’t make someone a good teacher. We’ve all experienced some godawful teaching from qualified teachers after all. Great teaching requires energy, passion, and a genuine love of teaching and working with young minds. Sadly, too many teachers don’t have that.

I've trained quite a few teachers over the years and they have definitely been better at classroom teaching by the end of their placements than they were at the beginning. The idea that a teaching qualification is just irrelevant isn't my experience at all.

It also requires someone who understands how pupils learn and retain knowledge. This is something that can be taught and is called pedagogy.

Those without a qualification in teaching don’t know how this works. Even though they may have loads of enthusiasm.

• 'Unqualified' in this context refers to no teaching qualification (ie QTS).
• Teachers can be 'Unqualified' in academies and independent schools. This is reasonably common, although most are qualified.
• As a separate issue, some teachers are currently teaching children in subjects they do not have a degree in (e.g a drama teacher teaching Geography or French).
• If you don't like this, and want things to change for the better, stop bashing teachers and help make teaching a more desirable profession to enter.

Hmmm. I work in a school, in my experience the unqualified teachers put more effort into the lessons. Maybe they are trying to prove themselves? Take it more seriously. I don’t know. One thing I’ve realised is across any discipline 3 years degree plus the year teacher qualification don’t make you an expert in anything. Maybe the education system itself needs looking into? Passing a few tests and holding a degree is simply that, being good at what you do with good intentions is another thing entirely

Actually unqualified teachers can work in maintained schools too, so long as they meet certain conditions. That is why (as quoted in a pp) an article in the TES on Jan 31st said: "The proportion of unqualified teachers in academies in 2023 was 3.6 per cent, the DfE says - slightly higher than the 2.5 per cent in maintained schools."

See The Education (Specified Work) (England) Regulations 2012 – as amended.

I'm a qualified teacher but ive taught a subject I don't even have a gcse in for nearly 3 decades

Hmmm. I work in a school, in my experience the unqualified teachers put more effort into the lessons.

Possibly because they don't actually know what they are doing....