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NUT: Removing QTS will weaken standards and skills

NUT: Removing QTS will weaken standards and skills

Commenting on an interview given to the Daily Mail newspaper by Children’s Minister Elizabeth Truss in which she describes talks of ‘chaotic’ pre-school provision and calls for them to take on more qualified staff, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said:

“Let us be absolutely clear. The Government’s decision to remove the necessity for a qualified teacher to be employed in early years settings and replacing them with so called ‘Early Years Teachers’ will weaken the standards and the skills needed to provide first class care in our pre-school settings.

“Early Years Teachers are not the same as qualified teachers. Despite the implication in the name, they will not have undergone full teacher training. The Government knows that parents view Qualified Teacher Status as a guarantee of quality but the Early Years Teacher is a teacher in name only. Parents are being hoodwinked by this sleight of hand.

“Despite the glowing description by the Children’s Minister of nursery provision in France she fails to acknowledge that many people there view their own system as lacking in creativity and perhaps paying insufficient attention to child development. They are looking to England and the Nordic countries for inspiration to reform the current system and to learn from our tradition of play as a vital part of education for young children.

“Ofsted ratings for Early Years were up again last year across the board, while the reputable Economist Intelligence Unit survey published last year (1) places the UK third in its international table for quality of Early Years Services (EYS), with France placed ninth.

“The professionalism of teachers lies at the heart of real outcomes in EYS. It will do nothing to serve parents and young children to remove the necessity of fully qualified teachers from our pre-school provision.”

 

(1)   http://www.lienfoundation.org/pdf/publications/sw_report.pdf

 

END                                       pr78-2013

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