Teachers' TV given go ahead

Friday, 9 July 2004 12:00 AM

A specialist television channel for teachers will go on air early next year, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) confirmed today.

The digital channel, with a yearly budget of £20 million, will broadcast a mixture of education resources and programmes on training and development.

Ministers decided to give the project the go ahead after a successful pilot study, with 88 per cent of the educational professionals involved agreeing the programmes were effective as a means of delivering training and development materials and 90 per cent saying they would watch the channel when it is launched.

The DfES said that the channel will be "a key part of the Government's drive for personalised learning" and will be supported by an "extensive" website service.

Despite it receiving government funding, the channel will be editorially independent, with a board appointed with a remit to safeguard its independence.

Brian Lapping, the chairman of Educational Digital, the consortium running the channel, said: "Teachers' TV is a first - a government-funded channel to serve a professional group. The programmes we transmit will be designed to be useful to teachers. They are our target audience and we intend this to be their channel."

Carol Adams, chief executive of the General Teaching Council also welcomed the project, saying: "A truly independent channel of quality programming on teaching and learning is a resource the teaching profession will welcome. This is a very exciting development for teaching and the pilot programming has been both realistic and inspiring."

The plan also has the support of one of the main teaching unions. Chris Keates, acting general secretary of NASUWT, said: "NASUWT is pleased to have been closely involved in the development of this innovative project. Teachers' TV has the potential to become a valuable and useful source of information on educational developments for practitioners."

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