Are Primary School Teachers Undertrained? Why Teachers Need to Have Specializations

You would expect that teachers are well trained in the subjects they teach before they step foot inside a classroom wherein they will teach multitudes of students within a single day. However, reports in England suggest that this may not be exactly the case.

According to BBC News, some teachers in primary school begin their careers with as little as a few hours in training for the respective subjects that they will teach. This is an especially unnerving prospect considering that primary school is an essential and formative part of a child's life.

Professor Jane Courtney of the Deans of Education Network believes this problem is especially present at the primary school level. There are times when primary school teachers are trained to cover up to 16 or 17 areas of a school's curriculum. On the other hand, secondary school teachers are only expected to specialize in 1 or 2 subjects.

Courtney also describes the education these children are getting as being fragmented. "Children are getting fragmented education with a little bit of coaching from this person and a little bit from someone else," she says. Courtney adds that primary schools need to understand that some of their staff are undertrained at some of the things they are doing.

Courtney also states that because primary school teachers instruct children aged 5 to 6, they would not need much specialization to garner an acceptable result. However, this is not the case as Courtney says. Due to misconception upon misconception being piled upon even younger students, teachers need to be specialized enough to disprove these.

This problem is not only affecting teaching staff from Great Britain or the United Kingdom. Even teachers in North America are having problems keeping up with the demands of a broadening education degree. According to the Toronto Star, would-be teachers are having trouble juggling their finances with their chosen degree program.