The Government's proposals to licence Teachers every five years was slammed by the Solidarity Trade Union as being misguided. and an attempt to regiment teaching .
 
Schools Secretary Ed Balls has proposed (in a White Paper published in June) that teachers who fail a five-yearly check-up will be banned from the classroom. To keep their licence, teachers will have to demonstrate that they have "up-to-date skills and learning to be effective in the classroom." 
 
Criticising the proposal General Secretary Patrick Harrington said :-

"Teachers already have to fulfil certain criteria to continue teaching e.g. at initial teacher training, performance management and Ofsted inspections. We are opposed to yet another layer of bureaucracy being imposed."
 
He added that :-

"The proposal suggests that Headteachers will decide upon renewal. This opens up the door to personal discrimination and bias which would be hard to counter. There are likely to be numerous court cases if Headteachers fail to renew licenses.
 
On behalf of our members we suggest he redirects the extra funds his proposal would cost to CPD - Continuing Personal or Professional Development if he genuinely wants to raise standards".
 
The proposals are likely to be presented in the Queen's Speech later this month.
 
END 

Contact: Patrick Harrington (Solidarity General Secretary) 07794 486858
or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it & http://www.solidaritytradeunion.org
Press Release (sol37press) distributed by Accentuate - PR Company Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Comments

rizla

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A licence in politically correct enrichment no doubt!

Sunday 15 November 2009, 18:36

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