I HAVE to disagree with Peter Sagar’s recent letter (HAS, May 16) regarding what he refers to as unqualified teachers in schools.

A typical newly qualified teacher is a person that attended school, went to college, went to university, then returned to school to teach.

This person has little to no life experience to impart to their pupils. On the other hand an educated person with a background in say, business, industry or the Armed Forces as examples would be able to convey times where they have utilised the skills they are teaching in a real life situation.

A structural engineer would be able to give examples of utilising physics when working out cable stay bridge loadings. A maths teacher who was a civil engineer would be able to give examples of when they needed to work out areas using the trapezoidal or mid ordinates rule. A former soldier who is now a foreign language teacher would be able to give examples of communicating with non-English speaking communities whilst peacekeeping in a far flung country on the other side of the world.

If I was a current student, these stories would increase my attention span rather than a no life experience teacher telling me what they had learnt on a computer or from a book. I think bringing in well educated people from diverse working backgrounds should be celebrated and not condemned.

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