Teacher training urged on the job

The Advertiser: Teacher training urged on the job :

"QUALIFIED people should be allowed to bypass university and become high school teachers through on-the-job training, a public policy think-tank report says."

When I went to high school here I had teachers who had been brought in from the street because there was a shortage. I had previously gone to a school where the teachers were scholars, well educated and well trained. There was a serious difference between the off the street teachers and the qualified ones. The qualified ones went on to be the shaping forces in various areas in education and their areas of expertise and they were so knowledgeable and so good at getting us to learn and know. The ones off the street were boring, lost control, lost their tempers and I always came out of maths with a headache because the off the street maths teacher shrieked at us all lesson and was so crabby because we were "so stupid". When we got a proper maths teacher next year it was such a difference. Academic knowledge, scholarship and training and experience make a good teacher in my book.