Trainee teachers ‘fail basic literacy tests’
Young children taking literacy classes in school could be taught by a teacher who struggled to gain basic numeracy and literacy qualifications, according to new figures.
The Department for Education revealed that some new teachers could have taken up to 39 tests before gaining a qualification to enable them to teach in schools.
Trainee teachers are required to pass the online tests to qualify for their chosen profession, but reports showed that eight per cent of the candidates needed to take three or more re-sits before they passed the literacy test alone.
One teacher told the Independent: "The whole question of these extra tests is irrelevant if, for instance, they are going to teach art or religious education."
They added that the tests are "not that difficult".
However, the figures showed that one trainee took a literacy exam 36 times before passing and another took a simple maths test 39 times.
Furthermore, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education Nick Seaton told the Daily Mail that the figures showed that a lot of people applying to be teachers should not be in the profession.
