Responses to new ideas to solve teacher crisis

Damian Hinds might think the "early careers framework" for teachers is an "ambitious strategy", but as it only states that some new teachers will "receive a two-year package of training and support", and probably even less qualify for a £5000 bonus if they continue to teach for three years, one of the obvious things it lacks is ambition (Schools will no longer be punished for test results, 28/01/19). It`s still not known for which secondary subjects this scheme will apply. 

 What is indisputable, however, is that this does not do anything to reverse years of real terms pay cuts for classroom teachers, to address the acute problem of school underfunding, or to solve the serious workload problem. After years of underpaying teachers in the 1960s Labour governments came up with two pay awards to enable teachers` pay to catch up with other professions and to prevent any crisis in recruitment developing. How about that for an ambition, Mr Hinds?

Richard Adams is right to stress that teachers` workload is the priority which "has to be tackled" if the recruitment crisis in the profession is to be ended, and job-sharing does nothing to address what is now the "biggest issue driving experienced teachers to leave" (Job-sharing is important but so is tackling workload, 26/01/19).

The fact that Damian Hinds finds it "bizarre" that there is a "lower proportion" of part-time "men and women in teaching" than in the economy as a whole typifies the inadequacy of recent education secretaries, who have no experience of working in schools (New plan to stop teachers leaving; fewer emails and more job shares, 26/01/19). 

  Reducing "email overload" is good only as a soundbite, and runs the risk of either offending or worrying parents unnecessarily. Rather than telling teachers not to reply to emails, better to put the technology to educational use and fund schools, so that either family liaison officers can be appointed, or parental contact time-tabled into the working day.

There has been a recruitment crisis in teaching for many years, with government responses totally unsuccessful, most recently with the £22 million being spent on bursaries for trainees who unsurprisingly did not go on to take up teaching posts (Bursaries failing to solve teacher retention crisis, says Labour, 10/01/19). What is needed is a secretary of state prepared to work both with teacher unions to deal with the problems of pressure, pay and workload. Some imagination, too, would not go amiss. How about newly qualified teachers being given exemption from paying back student loans for as long as they work in state schools, with the loan being cancelled after twenty years? How about parents being told to expect only one report a year, written or verbal, with anything extra provided only when necessary? What about scrapping the ridiculous idea that pupils incapable of getting grade 4s in English and Maths at GCSE be forced to resit and resit? How about relying on teachers` professionalism and expertise to monitor pupils` progress, and reduce the need for stress and anxiety- causing examinations?

 Doesn`t sound like rocket-science to me!