Catherine Harvey - 28 Oct 2010

The abolition of Teachers TV

Would it be too cynical to suggest that Mr Cameron and his coalition government need to abolish Teachers TV, which they consider to be a quango, to make room for their very own quango “New Schools Network”. We will remember that earlier this week Rachel Wolf of the New Schools Network discussed the issue of free schools being able to recruit UNQUALIFIED teachers. To me, this demonstrates how uncommitted the coalition government is to teachers CPD and to academic standards to be maintained. YET, if “free schools” are to move towards the recruitment of UNQUALIFIED teachers then Mr Cameron and his government SHOULD RETHINK abolishing Teacher TV. Undoubtedly it will be an invaluable and cheap form of CDP for those unqualified teaching staff. I would therefore agree with Louise’s comment that the abolition of Teacher TV is more a decision based on ideology rather than on economical grounds.

Steve Dawson - 28 Oct 2010

Teachers TV

Well done Louise - I suspect that the removal of this very valuable resource is motivated by ideology. It's about time that the future of education was taken out of the hands of elected politicians, which makes long term planning impossible, to the detriment of many children. The reduction or complete removal of school improvement services across the country due to budget cuts, allied to the removal of TT, does little to give anyone confidence in the government's aim of increasing teachers' professionalism.

Louise Hutchinson - 28 Oct 2010

Teachers TV

Thank you Mike for your support and for your comments, Catherine. Despite my cynicism, I am hopeful that David Cameron & Michael Gove will be 'big enough' to realise that Teachers TV is too valuable a resource to lose & along with other organisations, such as the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, valued and effective - and worldwide brands for the UK, it MAY be saved in possible reviews of these plans. Let's hope so. Again, thanks so much for your support.

@creativeedu - 01 Nov 2010

link

I posted a link to your blog post on the Creative Education Daily Digest because I thought other teachers would find it of interest: http://bit.ly/9T9BPj

Richard Taylor - 01 Nov 2010

Teacher's TV

A few corrections - Teacher's TV was an idea conceived within, and owned by the DfE (formerly the DfES & DCSF). The structure to run it; a contract awarded to a joint-venture partnership, overseen by an external board (established as a Non-Departmental Body) and funded via a sponsoring government department, was not unique nor even particularly unusual to anyone familiar with the procurement systems of the DfES (and later DCSF). This and other major contracts were awarded using systems that both complied with and fell completely outside the EU OJEC procurement guidelines. Such a freewheeling approach (which included the awarding of sizable grants with little if any oversight) was an organisational anomaly within Whitehall, one which has now been largely curtailed, although I doubt it will ever be able to be completely eradicated.

The intellectual property in Teacher’s TV which vests with the DfE is valued in their accounts at a net book value of £14m (amortised down by £9m from the £23m invested). Core programs (not news) are amortised just six years, and as such my view is that the best way to drive value from the £23m already invested would be to make all the existing content freely available to all English schools via the DfE website (or a similar channel).

Ten Alps current plan is to try and do a deal with the DfE that would allow them to repackage Teacher's TV as a subscription service (think Espresso or BSkyB). Their failure to licence the content (as opposed to the format and concept) on a commercial basis to any foreign education body, as well as the current tight funding settlement, make this an unlikely, either as a viable commercial model or even a sensible approach to driving educational value from the DfE’s investment in CPD (however I am sure Ten Alp’s shareholders would probably disagree).

Ten Alp’s bid to wrest control of Teacher’s TV is not without precedent, in January 2006 it was rumoured that C4 Education had held discussions with the DfES about acquiring the service.

All in all, Ms Hutchinson's campaign may be laudable, but it seems somewhat premature based on the facts of the situation.

Joscelyn Upendran - 01 Nov 2010

Teachers TV & Dfe IPR

If the IPR does vest in DfE as Richard Taylor comment above states would it not make sense for DfE to licence it with the UK Open Government Licence? http://www.nationalarchives.gov. uk/doc/open-government-licence/open-government-licence.htm

Edward Upton - 22 Nov 2010

Good value CPD?

After looking at the newly released government accounts this weekend I'd disagree with the premise that Teachers TV is 'an invaluable and cheap form of CPD'.

After ceasing broadcast in July, http://blog.teachable.net/2010/teachers-tv-the-1-5m-a-month-website/">Teachers TV is still costing £1.5m a month to run. They have increased their online audience this year, but based on their own statistics it would be cheaper for the DfE just to have given schools a CPD budget for offline training.

Of course, it's a different question about how to recover value from the sunk cost and maintain the content - but that shouldn't cost more than a major newspaper website to run.