WIREDGOV

Contributions by the Institute for Learning (IfL) to the work led by the Prince’s Teaching Institute and the group of Commissioners for a proposed new College of Teaching for teachers and schools were referenced yesterday (10 February 2014) at the launch of a blueprint for the proposed body.
 
Toni Fazaeli, IfL’s chief executive, said, “It is very positive that the need for teachers in schools to have their own independent professional body is coming to the fore, and IfL welcomes this development. The new College of Teaching will be a sister professional body to the Institute for Learning. This is similar to the relationships between the range of different professional bodies for engineers – for example, for mechanical, civil and electrical engineering respectively. By working as separate but equal partner professional bodies, the new College of Teaching and IfL will bring greater strength to the importance of the teaching profession across further education and skills (IfL’s main focus) and schools (the College of Teaching’s main focus).
 
”IfL agrees that subject and vocational expertise and pedagogical knowledge are vital for teaching, as are a wide range of professional skills, making contributions to the profession and teachers being leaders of learning. IfL also believes that it is fundamentally important that new entrants to teaching rapidly become trained and qualified. IfL is politically neutral and deeply regrets that only two of the three main political parties are signed up to teaching being a profession, with proper initial training and qualification. Initial qualification, ongoing professional learning and commitment to excellence in practice are hallmarks of a profession, in any field.
 
“With annual membership fees of between £70 and £130 being proposed for the new College of Teaching, it is envisaged that a significant investment will be made by individual schoolteachers paying the fees. It is felt also that some schools may pay the fees for their teachers. It was encouraging to hear the announcement at today’s launch that some three-quarters of schoolteachers surveyed said they were comfortable with paying the range of annual fees proposed.”