Children 'need variety of methods to learn to read'

December 20 2010

Children should be taught to read through a variety of methods, it has been claimed.

Martin Johnson, Deputy General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said Education Minister Michael Gove's plans to introduce MOT-style reading tests and train new teachers in systematic synthetic phonics are "plain wrong".

"The proposed reading test is a prime example of ministers' schizophrenia – saying they will trust teachers, and then telling them how to teach. And on learning to read, the education ministers' way is plain wrong," he commented.

Furthermore, Mr Johnson accused Mr Gove of "showing a complete lack of understanding about why some children fail to do well at school".

"The complexity of the problems and challenges many of them face in their home lives makes it incredibly hard for them to do well at school without a huge amount of support from a range of social and health services as well as education staff," he added.

 News brought to you by TimePlan, the UK's FIRST for teaching jobs

Want to know more about teaching in the UK?


 

News Homepage