THE Labour Government has announced its intention to have a specialist maths teacher in every primary school within five years.
Fantastic you might say. Proves they are serious about Education, Education, Education.
Unfortunately all it proves is that politicians have no concept of how things work in the real world.
A specialist maths teacher in every school will requ
ire an additional 3,000 teachers every year for the next five years. That is additional maths teachers, without replacing any who leave, though the figures I have seen say there are currently only 200 specialist maths teachers in primary schools in the whole country.
According to the Training and Development Agency for Schools about 2,000 maths teachers were likely to be trained this year (2008).
Secondary schools across England and Wales have already advertised 1,650 vacancies for maths teachers, which leaves the government quite a bit short of its pledged maths teacher in every primary school.
Politicians are great at thinking up policies, and announcing numbers (one million people in Hartlepool for the Tall Ships springs to mind).
Unfortunately politicians are often unable to deliver on their pledges because in the real world announcing a target doesn't actually mean that target will be instantly met.
Politics needs people who have actually had to achieve something rather than the current bunch who think all they have to do to make something true is to announce it to the press.
Steve Allison,
UKIP Councillor,
St.Hilda Ward,
Hartlepool Unitary Authority.
The full article contains 253 words and appears in Hartlepool Mail newspaper.
