Trainee teachers are ‘best ever’
The Chief Inspector of Schools David Bell has said that new secondary school teachers are the ‘best trained ever’.
Speaking at the launch of two new reports on the initial teacher training of primary and secondary teachers Mr Bell said that there have been significant improvements in all aspects of teacher training. However he admitted that there are still challenges ahead.
Trainees know more about their subjects and there have been ‘significant’ improvements in the way they plan and manage lessons, according to the two reports. But despite ‘golden hellos’ for trainee teachers in shortage subjects such as maths, science and modern languages, not enough people are coming forward.
‘In spite of encouraging recent improvements many courses, especially mathematics, science and modern foreign languages, still fail to recruit sufficient trainees and in the future this is likely remain a challenge,’ Mr Bell explained.
The reports’ findings were welcomed by the School Standards Minister, David Miliband who told the BBC: ‘Ofsted have previously said we have the best generation of teachers ever, now they say we have the best teacher trainees ever.’
Approximately 22,000 people achieve Qualified Teacher Status each year.
