YET another battle is brewing between teaching unions and the Scottish Government.
On top of the likely impasse over stagnating pay and the disquiet over the introduction of standardised national testing there is now the issue of fast-track teaching degrees.
The Scottish Government has acted because of concern over shortages of staff in key subjects including so-called Stem areas of science and mathematics.
Given the importance of these to the economy it is understandable that ministers are looking at ways to attract graduates into teaching.
One of the concerns about the current two year postgraduate course is that it is unattractive to science graduates who can secure well-paid work elsewhere.
Given the government has already ruled out the sort of lucrative bursaries available to science teachers in England, speeding up the process is one of the few options available.
The General Teaching Council for Scotland has been at pains to say the new fast-track option at Dundee University maintains the high standards expected of teacher education.
However, it is clear the Educational Institute of Scotland and some of those who work in universities have grave reservations.
Larry Flanagan, EIS general secretary, has already warned that car mechanics will spend longer learning their trade than teachers under new fast-track options.
The latest warning highlights concerns a 12 month teaching qualification will leave new recruits struggling to cope.
And the issue is far from being resolved. As part of a wider strategy John Swinney, the Education Secretary, has unveiled plans to allow organisations other than universities to educate teachers for the first time with the controversial Teach First organisation in the wings.
Although successful bidders must work in partnership universities, the latest row is a curtain raiser to a much more fundamental disagreement over the primacy of universities in teacher education.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel