Eric Robinson

The key to understanding national policy on the training of teachers is that it provides cheap higher education of teachers who can be cheaply employed. Teacher training is isolated from the rest of higher education in the colleges of education, and leads to a qualification that is unrecognized by industry and business. If the training of teachers were conducted in universities or polytechnics alongside education for other professions it would cost much more. If teachers in training obtained a qualification, such as a degree, that was recognized for other types of employment they would have a strong lever with which their salaries could be raised. The reason why young honours graduate teachers are paid 25 per cent more than their non‐graduate colleagues is not because they are better teachers but because they could command better salaries in industry or business.