British Dyslexia Association welcomes plans to scrap qualified teacher status skills tests

School’s Week reports the government plans to end the numeracy and literacy skills entry tests that prospective teachers must pass to start training. These are tests the British Dyslexia Association has long felt disproportionally disadvantages dyslexic candidates and that more appropriate ways could be found to measure relevant numeracy and literacy skills.

Sue Flohr, Head of Policy, British Dyslexia Association, said: “In our opinion, Qualified Teacher Status Skills Tests are an unnecessary burden. Prospective teachers will already have passed GCSE maths and English and the current mode of further testing adds stress and can disadvantage dyslexic applicants. It also deters many excellent subject specialist candidates from applying.

“We welcome the news that instead government could allow initial teacher training providers to use their own judgment to assess candidates’ numeracy and literacy skills.”

For more information on this issue, you can find the full article on the School’s Week website.