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Private school head calls for more focus on teachers' knowledge gaps

Posted on 24th June 2008

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An independent school head has cautioned that some new teachers appear to have gaps in their knowledge.

Writing in the Education Guardian, High Master of St Paul's School Martin Stephen noted that "basic subject knowledge" is lacking in some teaching candidates.

He stated that he has noticed this in interviews with applicants for posts at his school.

And Mr Stephen argued that government calls to train specialists only serve to highlight that "weak subject knowledge is perfectly acceptable".

The headteacher contended that while the bachelor of education degree "has merit … it did the profession a disservice by suggesting that a person should be trained to teach, rather than trained to teach a subject".

He suggested that all teachers should be able to attend catch-up lessons in their subject, with inspectors also focusing on teachers' grasp of the topic.

Earlier this month in an interview with the same publication, Mr Stephen proposed that teachers should be subject to streaming, so that the best pupils can be taught by the brightest staff.
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