The neglected revolution

I write on behalf of the forgotten majority - the universities and colleges who train more than 99 per cent of the nation's teachers, now "in partnership" with schools. Much recent attention has focused on the shortcomings of School-Centred Initial Teacher Training - the Government's DIY scheme that marginalised higher education. The critical content of the recently published report on Scitt from the Office for Standards in Education has been widely reported with all manner of apologists rushing to the defence.

Yet Scitt is itself at the margins. Last month another Ofsted report on secondary school partnerships gave assurance that mainstream teacher-training is in good health and safe hands.

Such partnerships are recent and highly innovative. Through them schools and higher education, working together, have transformed the quality of preparation for new teachers. This transformation has received scant publicity.

Small earthquake, no one hurt.

IAN KANE Chairman Universities Council for the Education of Teachers