A reader sent me this link (now dead), which also appears to be surfacing on one or two forums. It discusses a report by The AA.
As many as 27,000 driving tests have been failed in the last year because the pupil was taught insufficiently by a trainee, according to the AA.
The AA claims that the lower pass rate among trainees’ pupils has cost UK learner drivers as much as £1.7m over the last 12 months. The most recent government study showed that learners taught by a trainee are as much as 25 percent more likely to fail their test.
The AA is taking up the case itself, and is demanding that learners be told they will be taught by a trainee when they book their lessons. An AA investigation this year showed that one in 10 learner drivers were taught by a trainee without knowing it. However the report showed that of 13,000 drivers, just 0.5 percent would be happy to pay the same price for lessons with a trainee.
I think it is important to keep this all in perspective. The PDI system has been around for a long time and it is how many of today’s ADIs got where they are.
The real issue is that the vast majority of PDIs will never be good enough to become ADIs – and that has always been the case – so why should learners pay the same for lessons from PDIs?
Whether or not the PDI system is ethically sound is another matter entirely. Many of those prepared to denounce it and have it burnt at the stake actually qualified using it, so it is rather hypocritical of them to behave as they do.
It’s worth bearing in mind that some absolute dross manages to pass all three parts of the ADI qualifying exams and so become ADIs, so logic would suggest that some pretty good teachers fall by the wayside for various reasons as PDIs during the qualification process.
It stands to reason that if you’re going to start trying to abolish the PDI system, you also need to do a bit of cleaning up on the other side of the Big Door, and offload some of the poor ADIs out there.