A
report by Ofsted has found that people changing careers to become teachers lack
some of the basic skills needed in the classroom.
School
inspectors found that the Government’s training for people changing careers
could be introducing lower standards and offering staff too little support.
The
report raised concerns about the spelling, grammar and maths skills of staff on
the Graduate Teacher Programme.
The
report claimed that more than half of the candidates had ‘serious weaknesses’
in English and maths and a minority had weaknesses in their ability to plan and
manage a class.
*In
a separate survey of 500 teachers by The Times Educational Supplement more than
80 per cent described their financial situation as comfortable or well off.
This
figure did fall to 60 per cent in London and only three in five teachers
expected to still be in the job in five years.
More
than 90 per cent of those over 30 owned their own houses and the typical
teacher had a car and took two foreign holidays a year.
