Its been an eventful week! Mike Linley our Lead Scientist and Jon Dalton our Accounts Manager have been exhibiting in Mumbai, India. The three-day conference brings together passionate educators, leaders and experts who are committed to expanding the boundaries of education and training while addressing the growing demand for development and growth in the education and training sector worldwide, with special focus on India.
Our platform has been well received with a CEO for a group of schools congratulating us for creating the perfect solution for India's education market. It has not been plain sailing however. The exhibition has been scheduled in the middle of monsoon season, with roads being turned into rivers and a cyclone in full flow directly over the exhibiton hall today, generating winds so loud, it was hard to hear the questions being asked by delegates visiting the stand! Mike and Jon's brollies have not quite been up for the job! I want to thank Mike Linley for presenting a workshop on 'How to teach science with the confidence of a specialist teacher'. His workshop was warmly recevied by a hall packed of delegates who had battled it through the rains to attend.
Last year a report published by the National Audit office identified that 73% of school and college heads were asking teachers to give lessons in non-specialist subjects. The report found that included 44% of computer science lessons, 43% of Spanish classes, 30% for religious education, 28% for physics and 25% for German. A "significant proportion" of lessons in England are now taken by teachers with no more than A-levels in the subject with the government failing to train sufficient teaching staff to meet the demand. This picture is sadly mirrored in India who are facing a similar teacher recruitment crisis for subject specialists.