Answer to education crisis is not ‘instant teachers’ but respect for the profession
I read your front page article on Saturday with mounting concern. I find it impossible to understand why the Scottish Government has now decided to adopt a Scottish version of the Teach First approach to the education of teachers. Such a development would be a backward-looking and unwelcome erosion of professional standards.
There is clearly a current recruitment problem in teach- ing but we have come this way before. Work-force planning is not an exact science and human behaviour is not wholly predictable. As a result there have been times of undersupply and times of oversupply but we have always managed to weather the storm without having to resort to such extreme measures.
The Scottish Government’s decision serves as a reminder of the teacher shortage in the 1950s and 1960s when the use of uncertificated teachers was commonplace in Scottish schools. The situation was deplorable; professional standards were plummeting, the morale of the teaching profession was at a very low ebb and many children were being short-changed. The General Teaching Council for Scotland was established in 1965 to ensure that professional dilution was a thing of the past and that the protection of professional standards would always be a priority consideration. I am in no doubt that this latest initiative will lead to a lowering of professional standards and that the Scottish educational system will pay the price in the long run.
Better work-force planning would certainly help with recruitment. What is really required, however, is a change of attitude to teaching and the teaching profession. Teachers deserve to be valued and praised for the sterling job they do, often in very difficult and trying circumstances. When society demonstrates unequivocally that it regards teaching as a highly prized public service, it will surely work wonders for recruitment.
In the meantime I would urge the teacher unions, professional associations, General Teaching Council for Scotland, teacher educators, teachers and all others with a robust commitment to the protection and enhancement of professional standards to protest in the strongest possible terms about this wrong-headed initiative and to request that the Scottish Government think again about the wisdom of its decision. (DR) IVOR SUTHERLAND Bonnington Road, Peebles