{"id":497,"date":"2012-09-09T20:29:05","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T20:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/changes-to-teacher-training-must-not-be-an-excuse-for-more-cuts-crowe-2\/"},"modified":"2012-09-09T20:29:05","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T20:29:05","slug":"changes-to-teacher-training-must-not-be-an-excuse-for-more-cuts-crowe-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/changes-to-teacher-training-must-not-be-an-excuse-for-more-cuts-crowe-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes to teacher training must not be an excuse for more cuts \u2013 Crowe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Changes to teacher training must not be an excuse for more cuts \u2013 Crowe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sinn F\u00e9in Education Spokesperson Se\u00e1n Crowe, TD, has said that a  report into teacher training in the State which recommends fewer  colleges must not be used as a pretext for further cuts by the  Government.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Crowe was commenting on the publication of a report by an  International panel of experts that recommended the closure of smaller  teaching colleges and the integration of others.<\/p>\n<p>He continued: \u201cI understand that the report recommends the existing  19 state-run institutions will be merged into six &#8216;Centres for Teacher  Education&#8217; and that there should be in place more rigorous cap on the  numbers in teacher training due in part to the high levels of  unemployment among teaching graduates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course the capping of primary school posts is one of the reasons  teaching graduates struggle to find employment and the continual  redeployment of retired teachers further limits their opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI welcome any serious proposal that will lead to greater  improvements in the way teachers are trained and agree that we should  exam and mirror many of the progressive reforms that have been  implemented in Nordic countries. The Report rightly acknowledges the  high calibre of entrants to teacher education in Ireland which is  amongst the best in the world and it seems to make A compelling case for  a move to a &#8220;Finnish-style system&#8221;, in which all teachers are educated  up to Master\u2019s Level.<\/p>\n<p>I am conscious that the recommendations in this Report come at a time  when cuts to teacher allowances have dis-incentivised and made it  financially difficult, if not impossible for many teachers, including  newly qualified teachers, to up-skill by taking post-graduate courses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are well founded fears in the education circles and the  teaching profession that elements of this report may be used as a  pretext to implement further cuts particularly considering the  government\u2019s track record since coming to power.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is also important that careful consideration is given to the  unique identity and ethos of the existing colleges and this must be  retained as part of any restructuring of the current system.<\/p>\n<p>Equally, there must be adequate access for people wishing to pursue a  career in teaching and for rural parts of the country, like\u00a0 the North  West region which are often neglected when these type of policies\u00a0  recommended in this report come to be implemented. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Changes to teacher training must not be an excuse for more cuts \u2013 Crowe Sinn F\u00e9in Education Spokesperson Se\u00e1n Crowe, TD, has said that a report into teacher training in the State which recommends fewer colleges must not be used as a pretext for further cuts by the Government. Deputy Crowe was commenting on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}