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'm pretty sure it was this. He definitely wasn't high potential. He don't even have an A Level in the subject he wanted to teach.

So no, I wasn't wrong. Funny that.

There are a lot of people who know the TF programme really well and to be fair what you said didn't match that. So the other PP wasn't wrong either. Your person wasn't on THE TF programme of they were doing a SCITT.

I think everyone is a bit naive about what has been going on for a long time. Teaching assistants have been working as cover supervisors for years. With an absolute minimum of training and often without degrees. Long before Academies came in. Some have good degrees but the vast majority do not. TA s are now expected to have studied for qualifications but that wasn’t the case for a long time. They aren’t highly qualified in the subjects they cover, they are using teaching materials provided by the teacher. Often very inadequate in quality. There is very little proper supervision or quality control.

It's mandatory here. I got an A in GCSE Maths and am an English teacher, but had to do the numeracy test. I didn't revise at all and easily got 90% + as per the requirements. It isn't difficult if you have functional maths skills/GCSE. Even the Maths trainees with degrees in Maths had to sit it!

But if you don't reach the pass mark, they give you training and you just resit it at the end of training.

I think parents are very in the dark about the quality of teaching their children receive, especially in state comp secondaries, where cover teaching is routine, and can last for terms with no definite replacement.

Haven't rtft, but I'm curious to know what being outraged about it would achieve. It won't conjure up more qualified teachers. Neither will banning unqualified teachers from teaching. Most parents probably don't have the option of home-schooling their children, and the vast majority don't have the luxury of voting with their feet by removing their dc from their normal school that's struggling to recruit teachers and putting them in one of the few that isn't. So, failing that, most parents would probably conclude that it's better to have a responsible adult looking after a class than to send them home.

Yes it's depressing and yes, teachers could all give a nice long list of what should be done to improve recruitment and retention, but it's not as if any government ever shows any sign of listening to us.

Everychildmatters - I entirely agree with you, and when I left there were 4 teaching mainstream subjects, including a once cover supervisor being a "Science Teacher". It also doesn't help that decisions are made by these unqualified teachers and held as equal to teachers with QTS - they are supposed to be managed, but are they? Where is the pedagogical knoedge and understanding as to why things are done in a certain way for the benefit of children? The hollowing out of a profession and any damage done happens years after untrackable decisions have been made. I am sure that few parents would "uptick" their children being taught by unqualified teachers yet I knew I would be vilified for bringing it up when I myself taught because it would be seen I was bitter in some way.

And they are right - I am - why did I spend years, time and money to train, qualify, improve, study and so on to be seen on a level peg with someone
put in front of a class and called a teacher? A lead teacher, at that, in a different department (who would be technically more senior to me) with zero pedagogy?

Try this in any other profession and you'd be laughed out of the door. I no longer teach because of the hours vs quality of life. I can get more money in private industry with a much better work-life balance. Sorry to not be there for the children, but systematic undermining of our profession and I can no longer "martyr it out".