Cross trained teachers for primary and secondary?

miss no stars

Just on newstalk there, there's talk about having teachers cross trained so they can teach older primary classes and younger secondary years. There seems to be an opinion that it will make the transition from primary to secondary easier for groups that are more at risk (immigrants, travellers, kids from difficult backgrounds).

I'm not a teacher, I've only a limited experience working with kids in the age group in question, but even to me it seems that this doesn't go far enough. I don't know what having cross trained teachers will do - they'll either be in one school or the other so what's the benefit? There still won't be the continuity they think will occur. They obviously reckon there's an issue with the transition so why not improve the transition rather than just trying to mitigate the effects? Personally, I think it's far from ideal that a kid goes from being 11 years old in a school full of kids who go out to play at lunchtime to being a foot shorter than everyone in a school of what look like adults and suddenly have to move around and juggle a timetable and study for exams and there's the junior cert to think about and all your subject options and so on and so forth.

Would it not be better to just bite the bullet and go for the american "Middle School" model? 6th class to 2nd year grouped together? There seem to be plenty of places where you don't start second level education until around 15 or 16. I think kids would benefit more from being in an environment where children just out of primary school aren't being taught by teachers who just came from a class full of 18 year olds who are ready for 3rd level. I'm not trying to be negative about teachers, but surely it's a hell of a challenge to go from teaching organic chemistry to a classroom of young adults who are focused on the leaving cert to trying to 5 minutes later teach a group of 12 year olds how to make copper sulphate crystals. I personally think someone who's just turned 12 is far too young to be battling down a packed corridor against fully grown 18-19 year olds.

What do teachers make of the idea of having cross trained teachers? It probably makes sense for the teacher because of better employment options, but does it go far enough for the kids?

dambarude

Here is a link to an article explaining the story.

I personally struggle to see how the idea of cross-trained teachers will work in this country. Sixth class teachers teach 12 subjects, a First Year teacher will typically teach two.

Also, how would these teachers be employed? Would they move between primary and secondary schools? Or would they just have the choice of applying to both after graduating? I'm not sure if a primary school principal will want a teacher who is only qualified to teach senior classes; it allows for a lot less flexibility in terms of staff scheduling. The same goes for secondary principals.

I don't think that having a middle school system would help. That just makes for having two transition periods rather than one.

gaiscioch

While I agree with the idea of centralising teacher training, there are far more important aspects of that training to deal with than this "cross-training" aspect - such as the fact that the state exerts no control on the number of people taken into such courses, even though it will be paying the salary of the vast majority of people who secure a job in Ireland from those courses.

These teacher training courses are a money-making racket for the universities, where they get millions in fees for "training" people for jobs which do not exist for their subject in Ireland. If the state had a training and recruitment system similar to that for the Garda, it would be a far more efficient use of state resources and obliterate excess and profiteering by universities. Such a recruitment system would also reduce favourtism, and a wide range of discrimination which can be exercised by individual schools under cover of "school ethos". By restricting places to the level of demand, the standard of trainee would also rise (provided the criteria used for entry were appropriate, of course).