Sir, Fast-tracking to qualified teacher status in six months erodes the value of existing training and the work of those undertaking and delivering it, misunderstands the nature of teaching and devalues the profession of teaching and current teachers (“Brilliant. UK education gets an A* for defeatism”, Mar 13).

Teaching is about far more than having knowledge. It’s also about having the ability to communicate that knowledge and the aptitude to work with children. Such a speeded-up scheme undermines the work of recent years to raise the status of teaching and to move to a master’s-level profession.

This is just too short a period of time to acquire the minimum skills and knowledge required to be a successful teacher and to be able to demonstrate that they have been acquired. The Teach First programme is intensive rather than “accelerated” as it, to quote the Teach First website, is “an intensive two-year scheme” that “places high-calibre graduates in schools for a minimum of two years to train and work as teachers”.

Philip Parkin

General Secretary, Voice

Sir, If unemployed bankers can be fast-tracked to school headships, can we expect a reciprocal arrangement for unemployed teachers when the recession is over? They would appreciate earning at least ten times their current salaries (with generous annual bonuses), and the complex range of skills exhibited by experienced teachers would, I am sure, make them much better banking executives than those they replace.

Dr Vanessa Kind

School of Education,

Durham University

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