Up to 1,400 teachers to gain access to Masters Up to 1,400 of Scotland’s teachers will get new opportunities to enhance their professional skills through Masters level learning from next month. A total of 18 programmes across the country, from the Scottish Borders and Dumfries to Shetland and the Western Isles, have been developed by local authorities, universities and private providers, backed by £1.7 million Scottish Government funding for the next year. This builds on £1.3 million invested in similar projects over the last year, but with greater flexibility over the type of learning. Cabinet Secretary for Education Michael Russell revealed details of the new places ahead of an address to a major global gathering of education ministers and teaching leaders in New Zealand, delivered as a joint presentation with EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan. Scotland is leading a UK-delegation to the two-day International Summit on the Teaching Profession in Wellington. The aim of the annual gathering is to identify best practices worldwide to strengthen the profession and raise student achievement. Mr Russell said: “The Scottish Government is committed to strengthening the teaching workforce in our schools and these new programmes will go a long way in helping teachers further their professional learning. “We saw from last year’s PISA results that Scotland has made excellent progress in closing the attainment gap and is above the average of participating countries in maths, science and reading. These achievements would not be possible without the hard work and commitment of our teachers. “Scotland has first class universities, providing initial teacher education and there are now more post-probationary teachers in full time employment than last year. We want to provide our teachers with opportunities to further their education so they can continue to provide our young people with a world class education. The programmes announced for the next year will open doors for hundreds of teachers to undertake high-quality, masters level professional learning. “Supporting a high-quality teaching profession is critical to achieving successful learning outcomes for our children and young people as we face the increasingly ambitious demands of the 21st century. Scotland will take the opportunity to put forward and promote our positive and proactive policies on teacher learning and leadership at the summit, while learning from the best practice of other delegations represented at the summit.”
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 12:47:06 +0000