Plans for ‘College of Teaching’ fail to convince teachers

The TES reports on the implications of findings from a Sutton Trust Poll on teacher’s attitudes towards plans for a College of Teaching.

The majority of teachers are yet to be convinced of the need for a College of Teaching to act as an independent body for their profession, a new survey has revealed.

The proposed professional body for teachers, brokered by the Prince’s Teaching Institute (PTI) and currently being developed by a specially-appointed commission, would be intended to give teachers a greater say over education policy, professional standards, curriculum and assessment, as well as offering support in developing their own teaching skills.

However a new poll, commissioned by the Sutton Trust and carried out by the National Foundation for Education Research, found that more than half were either against, or unsure of the plans.

Of more than 1,100 teachers surveyed, 41 per cent said they supported the plans, 17 per cent opposed them and 41 per cent had not yet made up their minds. In the secondary sector, 45 per cent of teachers were in favour, compared to just 37 per cent of those working in primaries.

Under the latest proposals, membership of the professional body would cost between £30 and £130 per year. Of those who supported the plans, 26 per cent said they wouldn’t be prepared to pay for it and 47 per cent said they would not be prepared to pay more than £30.

Lee Elliot Major, the Sutton Trust’s director of development and policy, said that while the college has “real potential” to improve the “status and professional development of teachers”,  it is “crucial that it wins their backing and a willingness to fund its independence”.

Read the full article here.