12.6 Newly Qualified Teachers

Most NQTs return to the schools where they trained and are quickly integrated into schools as normal teachers. Some receive rapid promotion or are sent to new secondary schools. Most seem to get some induction at zonal level, though reportedly the arrangements made at school level for support vary from very helpful to non-existent. There were signs of a distance between the school and community in many of the responses of NQTs. Accommodation, food, transport and salary payments all figured highly as sources of problems. Though basic learning materials are available to most NQTs in their schools, other resources are scarce, and the Handbooks become a valued tool. The college curriculum needs to recognise this reality of the professional environment of NQTs.

However, links which might smooth the transition from student teacher to qualified teacher still seem tenuous. Notably, the induction topics that NQTs apparently find most useful are things that they should have already been taught, such as lesson planning, recording, and assessment. This suggests the need for more practical on-going support during the first years of teaching, perhaps supported by more print materials. This could be integrated with the support the MSSSP or its successors provide for school development.