The UK Is Screwed (Teaching Sector Edition)
There is an article on al-Beeb today documenting what seems on the surface to be a perfectly sensible idea by Education Secretary Michael Gove to make the standard of teaching in the UK system slightly less crap. The reason that it seems sensible on the surface is that…basically it is sensible as far as it goes – which isn’t far at all.
Prospective teachers, it is suggested, should need to have a certain level of proficiency in basic numeracy and literacy before embarking on their long holiday militant taxpayer funded cultural desert politically correct hands tied by choice indoctrinating children global warming will kill us all, kids career.
Firstly, let’s consider how bad it is right now.
Students will not be allowed to enter teacher training in England if they fail basic numeracy and literacy tests three times, under tougher rules to raise teaching standards.
“Tougher”, eh? Let’s come back to that.
At present students are allowed to take unlimited re-sits while they train.
The Department for Education said one in 10 trainees takes the numeracy test more than three times, while the figure is one in 14 for the literacy test.
Actually let’s not come back to it. Let’s sit some of the sample test questions now (more here):
Q: Teachers organised activities for three classes of 24 pupils and four classes of 28 pupils. What was the total number of pupils involved?
A: 184.
Q: There were no ” ” remarks at the parents’ evening. Is the missing word:
a) dissaproving
b) disaproveing
c) dissapproving
d) disapproving?
A: d
Q: For a science experiment a teacher needed 95 cubic centimetres of vinegar for each pupil. There were 20 pupils in the class. Vinegar comes in 1,000 cubic centimetre bottles. How many bottles of vinegar were needed?
A: 2
Q: The children enjoyed the ” ” nature of the task. Is the correct word:
a) mathmatical
b) mathematical
c) mathemmatical
d) mathematicall
A: b
The people sitting this test want to be teachers fergoodnessakes.
The aim is to improve the standard of students entering teaching.
Obviously.
The National Union of Teachers said it considered the tests “superfluous”.
Obviously.
Actually, rewind and think about that test again. They aren’t proposing to make it harder, just say that you can’t fail it more than three times! And at the moment, 10% of potential teachers are doing just that!
But the NUT said candidates who needed several resits to pass the tests were dyslexic, had English as an additional language, or were less familiar with the on-line testing system.
Eh? We have teachers who are dyslexic? And No Speaky The Good Englandish? Aaargh!
Just as you’d expect an accountant to be able to add up and a parachutist to have a head for heights, surely you’d expect a teacher to be able to speak the language they are teaching in and know how to click a mouse button?
And the ‘testing system’? Honestly, if Wayne Rooney can make Twitter work then this whole on-line thingy can’t be that bloody hard.
Don’t even start about your children coming home and parroting school-rehearsed lines about the evils of smoking, diet, using electricity and forgetting to recycle your own urine.
The way it’s going, home schooling may be the only way forward.
I have to admit the spelling one would have got me. I’m terrible without spell check.
…which is fine Trestin! I can’t recognise different types of pipes which is why I don’t think I’d be a good plumber. Or plants, which means I’ve never tried to become a professional gardener.
I can’t do the things you do [TM’s blog Don’t Tread On Us is on the blogroll here if readers don’t know it, check it out] so I don’t try to.
So if someone can’t teach then they shouldn’t be allowed to get through selection. Our children deserve better.
“to make the standard of teaching in the UK system slightly less crap”
Eye, That line really stood out to me.
We in the States have the very same ‘problem’ (a word that completely understates the situation) but at the very least, obviously, the UK has set a goal however small it may be in the lame attempt to rectify the situation.
“Students will not be allowed to enter teacher training in England if they fail basic numeracy and literacy tests three times, …….”
I suspect that if only two retests are allowed, the questions might be made slightly easier to prevent ‘underachievement’.
If they are illiterate and innumerate when they start teacher training they should go back to school as students and not be in a position to perpetuate their lack of skills. But I suppose that is unfair, discriminatory, elitist…
Pale grey typeface on w ahite background. Can’t read it. Too old (60). Would like to have been able to read it, as the link to it interested me, but along with so many other blogs, you ignore W3C accessibility guidelines, especially for older folks.
Here’s a trick: click-drag your mouse pointer across the text, or hit Ctrl-A to “Select All” and you get everything “highlighted”. On my system, that shows up as white on dark blue, much clearer.
P.S.
I’m 65, and generally find that a Ctrl-+ (enlarge typeface) works when necessary to read small or dim typefaces. Hint: set your control in the “View/Zoom” menu to “enlarge Text only”. That prevents having images blow up the word wrap function.
Wow. Okay, I can teach middle and high school English and Social[ist] Studies, so I don’t need to know algebra; thank GOD for that, or I wouldn’t have my job.
But anyone, regardless of their level or subject, should be able to pass this. Anyone who fails it– even ONCE– should be banned from the classroom.
They have ‘tests’? Remarkable.
This isn’t for the UK, it’s for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland has its own – far superior – education system that doesn’t employ halfwits.
It never ceases to amaze me what the teaching profession is able to get away with. I don’t suppose any of the ‘hard working’ teachers who clock off at 3:30 each day will give up a day of their 6 week long summer sojourn to make up for the millions of pupil-days that are going to be lost tomorrow.
No, clearly striking about having to pay 3% more into their pension pots is far more important than the education of the nation’s children. And what about the parents (whose taxes pay for their gilt-edged pensions)? We have to use up a day of our annual leave to cover for the strike.
You couldn’t make it up.
On the plus side – at least they will dock a days wages from them all – so in a way they are doing their bit to cut the deficit.
Thirty years ago, my five years old son started school. he caught the school bus in a state of great excitement. He came back in tears. Why? ” I can’t read. ” he sobbed. He spent a few weeks at that school filling yoghurt pots with sand and playing on climbing frames. We withdrew him from that school and introduced him to a Catholic school. One that had educated me to the age of ten. The headmistress was a nun. At the interview . my son asked what he would learn. The Head Mistress said he would learn sums, to read, to speak some French ( it was a French order of Nuns ), to speak Greek ( the school was in Cyprus). he would do English. He would learn geography, history, and learn different sports. Term Fees were £5.00 per month! What excellent value!
Every journey, Christopher, begins with a single step.
It’s instructive to see that even such a small one is being opposed…but a step it is, and that is a goog thing.
Depressingly true. And under the radar too.
Rather like many exams these days. “All shall have prizes!”
You have probably committed some sort of Thought Crime for that sentence.
Someone will be round shortly to put your name on a list.
Sit still and do not argue. It’s For Your Own Good.
Apologies for this. It’s a fair point so I’ve made the text darker now – hopefully that is better for you.
Let me know if it isn’t. I don’t really want to go black-on-white for the text but I’ll tint it some more if you think it would be better.
Let me know.
Tests! In name only, I think…
I would guess that there is something very similar north of the border; a different branding but with the same intention.
But I take your point though – just as it does annoy me when people still refer to a “National” Health Service. None of the four parts of the UK have the same structure, funding or charging systems.
Education is the same and that’s why I like localism…you get what your bit of the world wants to pay for and not imposed from a distance.
Depressingly I read somewhere (I’ll try to find the reference) that many local authorities will pay the day because it is too much hassle for their payroll staff to work out the deduction. Plus working out the “exceptions” for employees who are off “as part of their union duties” (Pilgrims, as Guido calls them)
So even the plus side…isn’t.
I went to a school which matches that description in quite a few ways. And yes, exactly, find somewhere that is prepared to put in some effort and does want more than mediocrity for your children – you’re on a winner.