We must train teachers in the real world and not online

I AM absolutely opposed to the flawed decision by the Department of Education and Science to approve and recognise a web-based postgraduate diploma qualification in primary teaching offered by a private college for the purposes of teaching in primary schools.

From the perspective of an educationalist, teacher trainer and classroom practitioner I find this development unwelcome and worrying. We are all aware of the esteem in which Irish people have always held, and continue to hold, their teachers.

This is due in no small part to the calibre and standard of the candidates whom we continue to attract to the profession and the corresponding specialist pedagogical formation, which they have received in a specially designated university department or college of education from qualified personnel well versed and experienced in classrooms and in matters of teaching and learning.