Editorial: Crash-course teachers set up for failure
January 23rd, 2012
There is a surface allure to the idea of offering a six-week teacher training programme to university graduates and then getting them straight into the classroom to learn on the job. Many people who would never have considered teaching because of the extent of the training may be attracted to the profession. More importantly, pupils in low-decile schools, the target of the incentive, stand to benefit from an influx of teachers in subjects such as science that are usually hard to fill. If only it were so simple. Unfortunately, classroom realities mean this is all very likely to be too good to be true.
The fast-track course has been proposed by the University of Auckland and Teach First NZ. If they receive Teachers Council sign-off, they want to recruit their first 20 candidates, who must hold degrees in the subject they will teach, at the end of this year. The graduates would be placed in low-decile schools, especially in South Auckland, or in schools needing teachers in subjects that have shortages.
