UCET’s deep concern about the likely destination of the DfE’s review of the ITE market
The Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) today expressed concern about the emerging direction of travel of the DfE’s review of ‘the ITT market. There are signs that DfE are heading towards recommendations that will have a huge and negative impact on both the quality of teacher education and on teacher supply.
Although the review group has been meeting since the autumn, much of its work has been shrouded in secrecy. To date not a single ITE provider has been consulted, although contact has been made with UCET and NASBTT. When news of the review group first broke in November 2020, a DfE spokesperson was quoted as saying that ‘’too much ITT was of low quality and not rigorously tied to the evidence[1]’, despite there being no evidence to support that claim and plenty, from OfSTED[2] and elsewhere, to demonstrate that the quality of ITE is extremely high. James Noble-Rogers said today: ‘It is almost as if the findings of the review are pre-determined, and based on unfounded assumptions, prejudice and dogma rather than on actual evidence’.
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