Cooke plan irrelevant

The Cooke committee's message that by 2010 new teachers should have a teaching qualification is irrelevant. ("Teaching 'licence' for all new lecturers by 2010", THES , August 23).

Many institutions already have that requirement, and all could have it by, say, 2005. Enhancing teaching quality should focus on rewarding good teachers and abolishing the research assessment exercise.

Alan Jenkins
Westminster Institute
Oxford Brookes University.