Teacher training should be quadrupled

The TES writes that teacher training should be quadrupled, according to a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). It recommends that, in order to become world class, England's schools system needs better teaching by receiving 20 days in-service training per year.

It wants to see teacher pay rises more closely linked to the levels of training and decisions about what course they go to taken away from schools and given to teachers.

Julia Margo, associate director of the IPPR, said that an analysis of GCSE results had shown that, once a child's background was taken into account, the quality of their teacher was the single most important factor determining the pupil's performance, beating other variables such as class size. She said, "If we had really effective teachers then we would not be performing so poorly internationally. The buck stops with teachers. If you want a world-class education system, you need to be investing your money on the training and development of your workforce, not on teacher pay."