​The education workforce is not sufficiently prepared for the implementation of the new curriculum and the Welsh Government should act urgently to ensure that teachers are prepared for the forthcoming changes, a National Assembly for Wales committee has said.
A new report by the Children, Young People and Education Committee on their inquiry into Teachers' Professional Learning and Education makes a series of recommendations to address issues that have been raised with regards to teachers' professional development, including enhancing current training provision across Wales and formal accreditation for teachers' professional development programmes.
During the course of its inquiry the Committee heard that a number of teachers were not fully aware of the ongoing and upcoming changes to the curriculum and only a minority felt well prepared for these changes.
The Committee also received evidence from a range of organisations that supported the creation of recognised accreditation for professional development to ensure that teachers know that they are receiving good quality and relevant learning.
Other recommendations from the report include:
Undertaking work to establish the level to which teacher workload is becoming a barrier to recruitment;
Considering the complexity and accessibility of professional standards to ensure that all those across the teaching profession have access to the standards in format that is best for them, and in a way that makes the use of the standards simple to incorporate into their working practices;
Revising the new professional standards to more clearly identify the core standards expected of a teacher in order to undertake their role effectively;
Extending the remit of the Education Workforce Council to include responsibility for professional standards in Wales.
Committee Chair Lynne Neagle AM said:
"Ongoing professional development of genuine quality is vital to deliver on the changing demands on the teaching profession.
"Recent actions by the Cabinet Secretary for Education including launching the new professional standards for teaching and leadership and delaying the rollout of the new curriculum to 2022 are to be broadly welcomed, but more needs to be done to address the issues highlighted during our inquiry.
"The evidence we received suggests that the current workforce do not feel prepared for the implementation of the new curriculum and as such urgent action is required by the Welsh Government to rectify this. We believe that our recommendations will help ensure that teachers are better equipped to deal with the challenges which are on the horizon.
"Above all, is the need to ensure that the quality of teaching in Wales is of the highest order, and continues to be in the future. We must therefore ensure that we do all we can to provide the profession with the tools it needs to ensure that quality of teaching."
Read the full report:
Report on the Teachers’ Professional Learning and Education inquiry (PDF, 937 KB)