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Preparing Teachers in England andWalesSir Fred ClarkePublished online: 30 Jan 2008.

To cite this article: Sir Fred Clarke (1946) Preparing Teachers in England and Wales, TheEducational Forum, 10:2, 151-159, DOI: 10.1080/00131724609342244

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Preparing Teachers in Englandand Wales

SIR FRED CLARKE

I

J\MERICAN readers will not need torl.. be told that Scotland is not Eng­land, educationally at least. Wales isnot England either. But although Waleshas a separately organized public De­partment of Education, its system isnevertheless under the control of theMinister in London and proceeds uponlines broadly similar to those of Eng­land. Scotland has a quite separateMinistry and its system proceeds onquite different lines.

The present article, therefore, has inview only the situation in England andW ales. Even before the War there wasmuch dissatisfaction with the prevailingsystem (or lack of it) for the recruit­ment and training of teachers, and de­mands were heard for thoroughgoingenquiry and reform. Social and educa­tional stirrings that arose from war-timeconditions, and the new insights thusproduced, added force to such demands.At the same time a growing sense ofthe inadequacy of existing educationalprovision over the whole range to meetthe needs of a strange and menacingpost-war world, set on foot comprehen­sive movements for educational reformin general. Plans were laid to whichstatutory effect has now been given bythe far-reaching provisions of the Educa­tion Act of 1944.

II

The Teacher Supply Problem

The work of preparing these plansserved to sharpen the conviction thata drastic overhaul of the whole systemof recruitment and training of teachershad become urgent. It was futile to setup new machinery without a guaranteethat there would be a sufficient supplyof teachers competent to make it work.Accordingly, about three years ago, thePresident of the Board of Education(now a Minister) set up a committeewith the charge:

"To investigate the present sources ofsupply and the methods of recruitment andtraining of teachers and youth leaders, andto report what principles should guide theBoard in these matters in the future."

Here two things should be noted.First, that in England while teachersare the employees of local authorities,provision for their supply and trainingis a national concern, directly under thecontrol of the central authority. Thescope of the Committee was thus nation­wide.

Second, that the reference covered notonly every type of teacher (except uni­versity teachers) but "Youth Leaders"as well. This term has reference to therapid growth in England of a richlydiversified "Service of Youth" as a re­sult of the combined efforts of public

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authorities and voluntary bodies. Itsmain concern is with the social andcultural needs of young people in theyears after leaving school. It is realizedthat the conditions of modern societyrequire the continuance of some form ofeducational care into these critical anddifficult years. It is also realized thatsuch care cannot take the form of ordi­nary schooling, but must be as diverseand flexible as the great variety of needsrequIres.

So there has grown up the new pro­fession of youth leader, and the inclu­sion of it in the Committee's terms ofreference implies a decision to recognizeit as a permanent branch of the country'seducational services.

The Report Emerges

After two years of hard work, thisCommittee (known from its chairman,as the McNair Committee) produceda report the recommendations of whichpromise to form the basis of futurenational policy. Anyone who desiresmore detailed information of currentplans and conditions in England woulddo well to study this report.'

What was the situation that the Com­mittee found when it set to work? Tounderstand it fully one would need to bepretty intimate with English social his­tory and all the peculiarities of Englishclass-relationships, religious groupingsand the intricacies of social custom and

1 Teachers and Youth Lead ers. Report of theCommitt ee ap pointed by the President of theBoard of Education to consider the Suppl y, Re­cruitment and Training of T eachers and YouthLead ers. (London: His Majesty's Stationery Of­fice. Two shillings.)

the various levels of social prestige. But,broadly, we may say that two quite dis­tinct systems of training were in opera­tion.

First in historical order were thetraining colleges, to the number of ahundred or more. These institutionstook their origin just over a century agowhen, very tentatively, the State beganto concern itself with the elementaryinstruction of those who were knownas the "children of the laboring poor."

It was inconceivable in early VictorianEngland that educated persons shouldbe thought necessary for this humblefunction, or indeed procurable at therates offered. Instead promising pupilsfrom the elementary schools were se­lected and apprenticed at an early age aspupil-teachers. Following apprenticeshipthey would enter a training-college, ifaccommodation was available, wherethey received some measure of furthereducation. But most of all they were"conditioned" morally, socially andemotionally, to the humble office in lifewhich was to be theirs.

Education and Training: A Distinction

This system persisted with littlechange right down to the end of thenineteenth century and, in some areas,even beyond it. Futile and unhistoricalas it is to blame another age for beingwhat it was, we have nevertheless to takeaccount of the legacies it has bequeathedto us. Concerning training-colleges, twoof these are to be noted.

The first is the continuing disposi­tion to draw a sharp distinction betweeneducation and training. It may well be

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suspected that some overhang of the oldsocial discrimination is still lurking hereto give greater validity to the distinc­tion than is justified on strict educa­tional grounds.

Certainly the distinction is appealedto often enough to rebut the claims ofthose who seek to advance the profes­sional and educational standing of teach­ers by such measures as associating theuniversities much more directly with thework of preparation. It is equally cer­tain that the sharpness of the distinctionis doing real harm, obscuring-as ittends to do-the bearing of the teacher'spersonal education on his professionalwork; and, on the other hand, the ex­tent to which his training may continueand illuminate his personal education.

If an over-sharp drawing of the dis­tinction has been a source of harm here,I do not know how far failure to drawit sharply enough may be a source ofharm in America. Possibly both coun­tries may have been making the samemistake for quite opposite reasons,namely, trying to make good teachersout of insufficiently educated persons.

The second legacy may be put muchmore shortly. It is, quite simply, thecondition of neglect and poverty inwhich the training colleges have beenallowed to languish. The Committeedeclares bluntly: "What is chiefly wrongwith the majority of training colleges istheir poverty and all that flows fromit."

Training Colleges

The colleges are a much diversifiedgroup. Many, including practically all

the older ones, are Church foundations.More recently some local authoritieshave set up colleges of their own. Afew are the result of private or volun­tary effort. All "recognized" collegesand students are assisted by State grants.Some produce specialists such as domes­tic science or handicraft teachers. Butsome specialist centers are outside thepublic system altogether, training teach­ers for such subjects as physical educa­tion, music, and (occasionally) art andcrafts.

Candidates for admission must be 18years of age and must have completeda satisfactory secondary school course.The training course lasts two years, andpractically all the output from the col­leges has, in the past, gone into theelementary schools.

But, side by side with the older train­ing-college system there has grown upmore recently another system attachedto the universities. This began in theform of what were known as Day Train­ing Colleges (to distinguish them fromthe older ones, which were all residen­tial). The object was to supplement thesupply of elementary school teachers,and the training was taken contempora­neously with studies for a degree.

But it was soon found that, in theconditions then prevailing, a graduatecould do much better for himself thanto join the staff of an elementary school.Most of them seized the chance, in spiteof efforts to hold them. Since 19°2, asthe supply of secondary schools in­creased, the universities very rightlyconcentrated more and more upon thetraining of teachers for these schools.

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and the Day Training College becamethe University Training Department.

But in recent years two-thirds of thegraduate output of the U.T.D.'s havehad to take service in schools ranked aselementary; the number of secondaryopenings was insufficient. Also, it mustbe remembered that hitherto a graduatecould be accepted for service in a secon­dary school with no training at all.

No Orga1Jic Relationship

As with training colleges, "recog­nized" U.T.D.'s and students rankedfor grant from the Board of Education,and both types of training proceededunder regulations framed by the Board.

Let us turn now to the Committee'srecommendations, since the newly­created Ministry, with its much en­larged powers, is already taking actionupon them. From the account just givenit might be thought that we had inEngland a broadly unitary system oper­ating in two sections under a commoncentral control. That is not what theCommittee found, for they stress verystrongly the lack of any true organicrelationship either among the traininginstitutions themselves or between themand other units in the educational sys­tem.

True, a very useful step was taken afew years ago when training collegeswere grouped around some convenientuniversity in what was known as a JointBoard for the purpose of setting coursesof study and conducting examinations .But there is nothing organic about thisarrangement. It is quite external to theuniversity, which is little more than a

benevolent patron, assuming no sub­stantial responsibilities and undergoingno real adaptation of its own structure.

A university's responsibility for itsmedical school is a very different thingfrom its tenuous relationship to a Train­ing College's Joint Board. The systemhas had little or no effect upon thegrave inadequacy of many colleges inrespect of buildings, equipment and evenstaff.

It is a melancholy indication of thereal status of training colleges, of theircharacter as a sort of floating-kidney inthe education anatomy, that membersof their staffs find it extraordinarily dif­ficult to move to other educational postsunless they get out at an early stage.And the making of appointments is achancy and haphazard business.

Regional Organization

The Committee as a whole is stronglyof opinion that this unhappy state ofisolation and lack of organic unity mustbe ended. All its members are agreedupon a plan for the pooling of all rele­vant resources within each defined"region." Preferably each reg ion shouldbe organized around its appropriate uni­versity center in a scheme providing forthe maximum of mutual interchange andco-operation. The scheme would includemore than the training institutions. Itwould incorporate such units as technicalcolleges and schools of art or music in­sofar as they had a relevant contributionto offer. Deficiency in any type of insti­tution, such as a college of physical edu­cation, is to be met by a new creation.

So far the members of the Com-

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mittee are agreed. They divide sharply(five to five) on the fundamental ques­tion as to how far this regional organiza­tion is to be carried. Consideration ofthe grounds of this acute differencewill take us near to the roots of thematter, for it raises issues of more thaneducational importance. They are po­litical and social too.

Systems for the recruitment and train­ing of teachers in the U.S.A. have beenworked out under very different in­fluences, social and economic as well aseducational, from those which have pre­vailed in England. But upon this issuewe seem to reach common ground, forit concerns the all-important question ofstandards.

III

Ho w to Get the Right Teachers?

We look at the world which nowseems to be taking shape before our eyes,dark and menacing enough. We peerinto the gloom ahead and think we candescry the lines of an education which,if it could be achieved, might producemen and women not unequal to thetasks of their time. Imagination projectsthe picture. Then comes the crucial ques­tion: "Who is sufficient for thesethings?" How can we guarantee a sup­ply of teachers who can realize thehope?

So the issue is one of Standards. Notof mere professional competence alone,but of knowledge, wisdom and insight;of character, imaginative vision, and thepatience and humanitas that characterizethe sound guide for the young.

To what power can we turn as the

creator and maintainer of such stand­ards] The State, with its great authorityand powerful sanctions can guaranteeorder, cohesion, unity and a certain kindof efficiency. But if we place all the maincontrols of the teaching profession inLondon under a Minister who, we mustremember, is a political head and hasnow great powers, what is to happen tothe essential autonomy of the teachingprofession?

Nay, more: if controls are so concen­trated under a political head, would notthe urge of any totalitarian tendency beextremely dangerous? We have surelyhad examples enough of the techniquewhich goes straight for political controlof the teaching profession as the first es­sential of totalitarian strategy.

It may be assumed that we should bein very dire straits before we had re­course to such a power for the guaranteeof standards.

The One Answer: The Universities

Yet, unlike some other professions,that of teaching has not so far achievedthat degree of unity and that high uni­form level of professional attainmentwhich render it capable of self-govern­ment so that it can set and maintain itsown standards.

Where, then, shall we look for aguarantor which, while it possesses thenecessary authority and enjoys thenecessary confidence, is nevertheless freefrom the decisive objections to whichState authority in this matter is exposed?

There can be only one answer, at anyrate in England. The university is theone authority which can provide what is

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needed, and do so both safely and ef­fectively.

Five members of the Committee (thewriter of this article among them) tookthis view and gave it vigorous expres­sion in the Report. The other five werenot prepared for so drastic a step, andpreferred the more modest plan oftightening up and enriching the existingarrangement of Joint Boards.

So the issue is now fairly joined, andthe Minister is now negotiating with theuniversities to discover what degree ofresponsibility they are prepared to as­sume in this great matter.

It is no secret that the Minister wouldwish them to take a very real and con­siderable responsibility in a schemebroadly uniform throughout the coun­try. In justice to the present Ministerit can be fairly said that she shares thedislike for a system of direction andcontrol centered in her office.

If, however, we are to have an inte­grated national system with free co­operation among the constituent units,there appears to be no halfway housebetween the assumption of regional re­sponsibility by the universities and thecentralization of all effective control inthe Ministry.

Dangers of Compromise

Some universities do appear to believethat a via media can be found . and arelooking for it. But it is to be feared thata weak compromise would do no morethan to set up an agreeable-lookingfacade, merely covering up a still-exist­ing chaos and leaving grave doubts as tothe real seat of authority. However,there is now good hope that a substantial

portion of the universities will accept thefull scheme and that the others will moreand more approximate to it.

But nobody refuses to recognize thatthe universities are faced with grave dif­ficulties in giving their answer. Newdemands are crowding upon them fromevery side; for some of them the num­bers of training-students involved arequite large, and of these a good manyare not of the stuff of which graduatesare made; and there is a real fear thatthe University's resources and energiesmay be diverted from its central func­tions.

Such fears are natural enough. Butsome of us feel that they might be metif the university set up an organization,to be called perhaps a School of Educa­tion, for which it took ultimate responsi­bility, but the working of which is leftvery largely to those concerned. Theanalogy of a Teachers College, formingpart of some great university, will sug­gest itself to American readers.

Educationally, one very great advan­tage flowing from a close university con­nection would be that the rich andvaried resources of the university wouldbe made more available for the studyof education and for the enrichment ofthe preparation of the teacher. Thereis hardly a department which wouldnot have some contribution to bring,though some, such as philosophy, psy­chology, sociology, economics, historyand language, would be more relevantthan some others.

The Teacher and Social Esteem

All the members of the McNair Com­mittee are agreed that any regional plan

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requires the presence at the center of awell-staffed and well-equipped "School"of some kind, of advanced studies andresearch .

Whatever road we follow we findourselves faced by the one paramountnecessity. That is a general raising ofstandards in the teaching profession,meaning by that standards of every kind-intellectual, professional, social andthe rest.

Particular emphasis is laid upon theraising of the level of social esteem inwhich the profession is held. Here inEngland our social history has be­queathed to us a damnosa haereditas inthis matter, of which it will not be easyto rid ourselves. But what we have nowto ask of our teachers is much betterrealized as we face the needs of thefuture, and people are beginning to seehow respect for education itself is dimin­ished if the general status of the teacheris unduly low.

Though the members of the Com­mittee are not agreed on the most crucialissue of all in this matter of standards­that of the part to be played by the uni­versity-they do agree in recommend­ing strongly some important measures.They urge improvement in the qualityand conditions of service of training­staffs; and their proposals about build­ings and equipment are quite drastic.They suggest that for a period of tenyears at least the Minister shall beadvised by a Central Training Councilon such matters as the planning ofregional schemes, the improvement ofexisting buildings and the provision ofnew ones, and the methods of financingthe national system of training.

Sin gle Basic Salary R eform

Also, they have much to say aboutincreasing the attractiveness of the pro­fession by improving conditions in theschools. Reduction in the size of classes,better school buildings, provision forsabbatical leave and, in particular, re­moval of the ban on married womenteachers, are among the recommenda­tions. (On this last matter Parliamenthas already acted. The new statute pro­hibits the termination of a teacher's ap­pointment on the ground of marriage.)

But perhaps the most significant of allamong these specific proposals is onewhich urges the provision of a singlebasic salary scale for all teachers recog­nized as qualified, with additions, ofcourse, for special attainments and re­sponsibilities. Action has already beentaken on this. Joint machinery for ne­gotiating salary agreements betweenteachers and local authorities has existedin England for some time-the so-called"Burnham Committee." This has nowbeen set in motion, and draft scales onthe above principles have been pub­lished.

Naturally, these scales have in viewthe order of things as it will now beunder the 1944 Act, and the effect isto cause rather bitter criticism and re­sentment among those teachers who en­joyed special advantages under theold order.

But the logic of the new situationcannot be ignored, and there is now nodoubt that the Minister will use herpower under the Act to make the scalesobligatory upon all schools and authori­ties which are in receipt of State grants.It will then be the fact that the teachers

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are paid at the same basic rate, at what­ever level of the school system they areworking, and (with the special exceptionof the London area) in whatever part ofthe country. This striking developmentis itself a strong reason for insistingupon a high level of all round qualifi­cations for all teachers.

IV

The Teacher Supply-and-Demand

The McNair Committee was con­cerned only with principles. So it haslittle to say about the detail of training­courses. But it does urge that the coursefor non-graduates should extend overthree years instead of two. There is nodoubt that this step will be taken assoon as conditions permit. That point,however, is still some years ahead. Forsome time yet, perhaps for the next tenyears, we shall be facing emergencyconditions, and much temporary im­provization will be necessary.

In the first place there is already agrave shortage of teachers owing to thesevere demand upon men and womenfor war service of various kinds. Someof those so engaged will certainly notreturn to teaching.

In the second place the capacity ofexisting training centers, already inade­quate, has been further restricted bywartime necessities. Many of them havehad to surrender their buildings to warpurposes, and some have had theirpremises badly damaged. Most areworking under limitations.

Finally, and most important, to carryinto effect the Education Act of 1944, anet addition to the existing establish-

ment of teachers will be needed in num­bers which cannot be put lower than70,000, an increase of from 25 to 30per cent. The school-leaving age is to beraised in one or at most two yearsfrom 14 to 15 and later to 16; classeshave to be reduced in size; the YouthService must be staffed; and the newCounty Colleges, taking young peopleafter they have left school for one daya week to the age of 18, have to bemanned.

Very wisely, as many will think, theMinistry is not asking the existing cen­ters to take any part of the new burden.Instead it is itself assuming the responsi­bility for setting up a number of"emergency colleges." The demand isso urgent that no more than one yearof training can be contemplated, thoughthis is to extend over 48 weeks (asagainst the 36 or so in the permanenttwo-year colleges).

It is hoped that experiences which stu­dents will have had in their war service,and their higher seniority will to someextent compensate for the shortening ofthe course. Further there is reason tobelieve that completion of the coursewill be followed by a period of proba­tion during which further reading andstudy will be required of the teacher.

A Large-Scale Experiment

The full scheme can now come intooperation with the end of the World warand the large scale demobilization thatnow becomes possible.

But there are enough suitable candi­dates already to justify a start, and threecolleges will be operating in the autumn

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of 1945. Others are being rapidly organ­ized.

Very naturally some anxiety is feltlest the quality of the teachers so trainedshould not be up to standard, and thatthey should find themselves of inferiorstanding among their colleagues. Butthe situation is not only urgent, it isalso entirely novel.

So the effort may quite justifiably belooked upon as a large-scale experimentfrom which conclusions of high perma­nent value may be drawn. In view ofthe care now being taken with thescheme, and the unique quality of thecandidates for training, this may wellprove to be so.

Much criticism of the scheme missesthe essential fact that it is inevitably animprovization and open to all the ob­jections that even the dullest can pointout in such cases.

But, surely, in such circumstances ofurgency we must put up with the bestwe can do. For the schools, like theKing's Government, must be carriedon. If, as seems certain, only one yearof full-time training is possible, thenwe must hope that supplementary re­quirements for in-service training,coupled with the years of discipline andtesting experience which recruits fromthe Forces will have had, will make upthe balance.

V

Anglo-American Contrasts

Such, in broad outline, is the Englishsituation. The problems it presents are

no doubt similar to those which Americahas to meet. But the methods of han­dling them will necessarily be different.From a broad national point of view itmay be that here on this side we dohave some advantages. A strong centralMinistry; local authorities whose auton­omy, though great, is limited; and largesums of Parliamentary money availablefor grants. In such conditions it isfairly easy for us to think in terms ofbroad, uniform standards pushed ashigh as they will go.

That, in fact, is how we actually arethinking. But we have no experienceof the difficulties and complexities ofa Federal constitution, though we doknow that in spite of all the headaches,Americans will find a way of dealingwith these problems within the constitu­tional limits.

Where American work and experi­ence will certainly prove most helpfulto us is in the re-planning of training­courses themselves. After nearly sixyears of war, in constant exposure toattack, leaving us now with vast damageto make good and huge arrears to fillup, we are not yet well placed to carryout our forward planning. But docu­ments now reaching us from Americashow how much has already been donethere, and we look forward eagerly tothe closest collaboration in this work assoon as our present pre-occupations areeased, so as to give us the necessary free­dom. Perhaps it is as well as that weshould not make up our minds on thiscentral matter too soon.

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