Welsh Education Minister announces plans to transform teacher training
Huw Lewis, the Welsh Education Minister, has announced new guidelines which aim to transform teacher training courses in Wales, including a new two-year postgraduate course and greater subject specialism for primary school teachers.
The plans add to Lewis’ proposal to extend education degrees to four years, with all teachers to be educated to masters level. The announcement follows an independent review of the system in 2015, by Professor John Furlong which claimed the quality of the sector had ‘deteriorated’.
Lewis said: "I have been clear that we must do more to accelerate improvement in initial teacher education provision across Wales. This is particularly important as we continue with our programme of radical education reform, focused on driving up standards across the board.
“Our new draft course criteria will signal a new level of expectation on both students and providers of initial teacher education. It will require innovative and creative thinking and will enable us to focus on the requirements of our new 'made in Wales' curriculum which is currently under development."
The teacher training changes are expected to be rolled out across the country from 2021.
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