Entry 60, on 2004-09-30 at 15:13:08 (Rating 3, News)
A recent survey of teacher competence showed that one third of new primary and one half of new secondary teachers didn't meet the required standards. No one specified what these standards were and how they were formulated, but its still rather alarming that the standard is so low, especially when the government has been talking about the importance of a "knowledge economy", and quality education for so long.
So the question is: what has gone wrong? One suggestion is that teacher education courses are full of political correctness and "psycho-babble" instead of practical, useful training. Another is that many teachers are so overwhelmed with paper work, mindless assessment, and compliance procedures
The answer is probably that both of these issues contribute in a signifant way to the poor quality of education. When education is done by following a formula it probably drags the standard of the poorest teachers up a bit but it must drag the best teachers down towards the average as well. I think teachers, and many other professionals, should be allowed to work with more self-sufficiency and not be so answerable to the inflexible bureaucrats of organisations such as the Education Review Office.
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