Should teachers have reasonable English and Maths skills?

[youngmafbog]

I'm surprised at all the furor. Surely we need to have the best teachers to get the best out of our future generation? We need to be able to give our kids the chance to get on and compete with the world and to do that we need the best teachers.

Mind you, gym teachers will be b*ggered !

Oh, and we need to give the teachers back the classrooms with protection and respect.

[jno]

define "best" - and which children will get them

[Baldric]

Is there a link to a story?

[Ellipsis]

> Should teachers have reasonable English and Maths skills?

Yes.

> furor

What furor? AFAICT the unions agree, but are using the announcement as an opportunity to complain about something else - not the announcement itself.

[tonyav]

Reasonable English and maths skills, I should have thought that they would be a basic requirement to get a teaching job to start with.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Of course not. It's a bourgeois and elitist concept.

[pdq1]

Some of the best teachers are those that possess the lowest qualifications but are superior at getting the message across and instilling enthusiasm.

[Brenden]

I hope that doesn't go for brain surgeons as well pdq.

[emmie]

is this what you meant

http://www.guardian.c...h-tests?newsfeed=true

[jake-the-peg]

In principal sounds good enough

But what's all this "limit retakes" stuff?

Are we suggesting that if you fail an exam once or twice, that's it you'll never be good enough?

Shall we apply that logic to the driving test?

[anotheoldgit]

I was listening this morning to a radio phone in on this very subject, and a young teacher who was obviously quite knowledgeable in teaching skills so much so that she was sitting her Masters, was very concerned about these tests.

And although she was up to standard in English and Maths and she was only going to teach infants, her only weakness was in making quick mental calculations in a given very short time.

She said she had sat one of these tests on-line and although she passed on the normal questions, she unfortunately failed to carry out a mental calculation in the given time of a few seconds.

And since I believe they are only given two chances to take these test, is it fair that it could ruin her whole career just because of this?

[andy-hughes]

Should teachers have reasonable English and Maths skills?

No, they should have excellent English and Maths skills.

These skills are basic tools for any degree pertinent to a career in education.

[sandyRoe]

But do the teachers in the bog standard schools really need Grade 'C' passes in English and Maths?

[factor-fiction]

AOG- it's not as unfair as you suggest- teachers do need to be able to work things out on the spot. A teacher can't keep saying to pupils 'give me a minute to check that'.

[Prudie]

Err? Name an academic subject in a 'bog standard' school that doesn't need good skills in either Maths or English.

[emmie]

bog standard schools, are there any, and if so why are they?

[emmie]

if you are a teacher you need good skills, a communicator after all, and numeracy is essential in most jobs.

[factor-fiction]

I was going to comment too, prudie, but I wondered if sandy was making a joke. (Who was it that talked about bog standard comprehensives?)

[emmie]

sometimes i don't know whether his comments are tongue in cheek...

[Prudie]

You may both be right, what say you Sandy?