Tories to tighten up teacher training rules
Updated on 18 January 2010
David Cameron sets out his plans to raise the status of the teaching profession, calling for a "brazenly elitist" approach to raising standards in the classroom.
The Tory leader pledged the Tories would stop people with third class degrees from entering state-funded postgraduate teacher training.
Speaking at the launch of the education chapter of the Conservatives' draft manifesto in London, Mr Cameron said he wanted to "elevate the status of teaching in our country and make it the noble profession.
"With our plans, if you want to become a teacher – and get funding for it – you need a 2:2 or higher," he said.
Around one in 10 new entrants to post-graduate certificate for education courses currently have a third class degree or less.
Mr Cameron promised to learn lessons from "brazenly elitist" countries such as Finland, Singapore and South Korea, which have "deliberately made teaching a high prestige profession".
Student loans for top maths and science graduates would be repaid if they went into teaching, he said.
Labour piloted a similar scheme for new teachers in priority subject areas from 2002 to 2005.
Mr Cameron also promised to let schools pay bonuses to the best teachers and "do what we can to support our head teachers in removing poorly performing teachers as efficiently and quickly as possible".
The Tory leader committed to extending the Teach First system, which lets top graduates spend two years teaching before they go on to another career, and encourage experienced professionals to turn to teaching with a new Teach Now scheme.
