Britain: Labour’s plan for licences another attempt to vilify teachers
By Margot Miller
In another bid to outdo the Tories in attacking the working class, Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt recently announced that under a Labour government, teachers working in England’s state schools would have to be licensed every few years.
23 January 2014
This would involve both continual assessments of a teacher’s competence, as well as an external assessor making their judgement on whether a teacher is fit to teach. Originally proposed by the previous Labour government’s Education Secretary Ed Balls on a five-year cycle, Labour intends to consult with the teaching trade unions in order to implement teacher licensing.
According to Hunt, the latest proposal is intended to give teachers the “same professional standing” as doctors and lawyers, “which means re-licensing themselves which means continued professional development”. He continued, “If you’re not a motivated teacher... passionate about being in the classroom— you shouldn’t really be in this profession. So if you’re not willing to engage in re-licensing to update your skills then you really shouldn’t be in the classroom.”
Red Dwarf – #6 – S01E06: Me 2
1 hour ago
4 comments:
Unfortunately Cunliffe cannot introduce this as Labour policy, because this is already law in NZ - changes introduced, I think, under Helen Clark:
http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/content/renewing-full-registration
Thanks. Shows how little I know about education. Looking at the link it's surprising a registration renewal system doesn't exist in the UK.
At the end of the day I suspect licencing would not be about quality at all - it would be about towing the govt line of the day, not rocking the boat etc...
Free and cleear thinkers forming their own opinions based on their own enqiry must terrify govts.
3:16
Free and cleear thinkers forming their own opinions based on their own enqiry must terrify govts.
Such thinkers obviously cannot work in state schools if they want to keep their self respect.
Let's be clear: this reform is fundamentally leftist; pushing more money to the PPTA (primarily) for not one more kid in one more classroom. Productivity will get worse (again) not better.
It will no doubt buy Key some relief at the election, but it just shows that Key consistently governs to the left of Clark. (He aways said he was just Labour's policies with a prettier face)
Rather than UK copy NZ, why not have NZ copy the UK - almost every UK state secondary school has converted into a charter (what they call "academies"). Yes that means bulk funding - it is effectively a voucher system like NZ's old tertiary funding model.
Let's be clear: this policy of Key takes NZ's education policy to the left of the UK, to the left of Australia, far to the left of the US and even to the left of most of Europe.
It's absolutely no surprise that NZ is crying out for a new Conservative alternative to this fundamentally left-wing government. Compare the first 6 years overall of Key to the first 6 years overall of Clark: there's really no comparison --- Clark is "Labour lite" and Key is "Labour".
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