Yes people not able to do the job/role for which they are employed exists everywhere, but one comment made in the weekend's press and television media surrounding the forthcoming Panorama programme on Teaching stood out for me.
Basically in the last 40 years only 18 teachers have been struck off due to incompetence.
OK that is probably just a headline grabbing figure, along with the other one of 'up to 15,000 teachers might be incompetent', but worthy of some informed debate.
Hopefully the programme will also provide some statistics as to :
- how many teachers there are at this time, i.e. employed in 2009
- whether there is a nationally agreed assessment method/process for teachers
- how many were struck off in 2009
- where these teachers are spread, i.e. primary, secondary
- how many were suspended in 2009
- how many have undertaken re-training during 2009
- how many are on some form of probation/closer assessment
- whether Panorama are just talking England, or the whole of the UK
Now some of the reporting over the weekend seemed to suggest that 'poor quality' teachers rather than being removed are just 'shunted' around the system in agreement between the teaching Unions and the employers.
Sorry to friends in the NUT, NASUWT, etc. but you've never been that powerful, along with the overwhelming majority of trade unions since the late 70's. Plus look at the various Governments stance on unions and how they can operate over the same period.
Over to you ?
Interesting! Hopefully some statistics and discussion of the way government and parents have undermined teachers will also come out, together with the lack of support from heads, boards of governors, PTAs and parents generally.
Of course there are incompetent teachers; there are incompetents in every occupation. Very few occupations get as little support from either employers or 'clients' as teachers do however.
What is it now....four years? Five? For a person to get a degree in teaching?
A University degree and yet even after all that some teachers are just fecking useless at it.
There are not two days in mrs 777's Daughters school where she does not have a proper teacher. When I say a proper one, I mean her own teacher. She has supply teachers roughly four lessons a week, sometimes more....why?
You only have to look at the figures to tell you how many kids leave school without the basic fundamentals of the three R's.
Kids fault or teachers fault? A mixture of both I think.
The teachers union is there to protect bad teachers, so they just stay in the profession, teaching those poor kids.
There are loads of fantastic teachers out there and some pretty awful ones who should not be teaching. Yes there are good and bad in all professions but a four year degree ffs and still useless?
It would make an interesting post documentary debate with friends etc. however there is an element of seriousness around this issue. When you think about it from a 'client' perspective - a parent or you just being a caring tax payer/citizen you wouldn't want your kid or niece/nephew to be taught by someone who isn't vetted and can be barred from the classroom; same way you wouldn't go to a Dr, Nurse, Lawyer, Accountant if they were registered, regulated or had any professional development since qualifying. Say for example, God forbid, you had a serious illness and you found out your Dr hasn't had any professional development/updated themselves since they graduated and doesn't know the latest technology to treat you, or even made poor judgements about your health diagnosis etc etc.
Why aren't teachers aware of what is surrounding the world today and be accountable for it. Stand up like the rest of the other professions. they don't have to like their professional body but know its there to get rid of those that bring the profession into disrepute. Look at the baby P and other cases.
Lets pray that nothing serious happens to someone...
I am a teacher but I teach adults. I would never consider teaching children and I think that people who do are so very brave!!
In all jobs you have people who are bad, average and good. I would say that the majority of workers would fall into the average category.
To be able to teach children, a teacher has to be something very special, in fact they have to be inspirational! They have to grab the child's attention and hold on to it and make what they are teaching so interesting that the child wants to listen and learn. To be average isn't good enough whereas in many jobs it is. This applies to any teacher but more so when teaching children as people entering post compulsory education do so by choice and most of them want to learn to better themselves.
I don't think the blame can be laid just at the feet of the teacher or the kids. What about the families? The parents who live off welfare and have proven that you don't need an education to get through life comfortably?
And then of course we have issues of respect. Many children have no respect for their elders or for anyone in authority. How can any teacher deal with situations where children don't want to learn and their parents aren't interested in their child's education? Teachers are trying to do their best in difficult situations, with little punishment options and a constant threat from children who know the system as well as they do. Abuse and discrimination accusations flying around, etc.
Of course there are bad teachers, there are also fantastic ones and lets not forget that exam grades are rising each year. I know that not all children leave school with basic qualifications ... when they realise that they should have tried harder at school, that's where I come into the equation.
Well said Funlovers :jagsatwork:
I'm not a teacher and never claim to be one, however I do spend a significant amount of time each year 'teaching' as part of a role with my chosen sports governing body, where in the main attendees are over 16 and actually volunteered to give up their free time to attend.
its the incompetent parents that make teachers lives a misery as their kids disrupt class and ruin the chances of those who wish to learn.
Because the law is crazy kids can attack the teacher and get away with it and this is what drives good teachers away from the job and you'll left with the ones who dont care.
When i was at school you had the cane and on my first day at school my dad frog marched me to the head teacher and make it clear, 'if he causes trouble you have my permission to cane him'.
I never forgot that and even though i was difficult at times i knew where i stood and the outcome of any serious infraction of the rules.
And this is the problem, because kids know they go unpunished and the parents always blame someone else instead of their moron of a child teachers will give up and standards will fail.
You only have yourselves to blame!
My eldest niece has just got her masters degree in maths(honours btw)and is going on to teacher training in the autumn......I have nothing but admiration for her vocation and that of others who choose what is an increasingly pressured and difficult profession.
I'll pass your congratulations on to her.
Having briefly read what others have writen, as always there two side to everything. I Can only go by my experiences.
I went to a secondary mondern comprehensive school, behaved myself, never got detention had an excellent attendance rate but left in 1984 with no qualifications at all. And i am far from stupid. It wasnt a large school, 4/5 year classes in each year. Apart from 2 teachers the rest were useless.
My son is nine and goes to a popular primary school, where most of the teachers are very good. Except one, unfortunately because of class numbers and re structuring he has had this one particular teacher twice. Apart from the social aspect of school, he would have learnt more at home with me. Thankfully she is retiring this year so he wont have another wasted year. Even though i have continually complained about this teacher, nothing is or can be done. She doesnt do anything wrong, she just doesnt inspire the kids.
My son had a different maths teacher every year (2 in some years) throughout his secondary schooling. He got a good grade in spite of this - most did not. Every one of them was a temp. With little or no continuation through the school struggling kids fell by the wayside. These teachers may not have been incompetent (he had a geog teacher that certainly WAS incompetent) but the lack of continuity damaged the education of far too many children.
Kids get 5 years to get qualifications that will affect or even dictate the direction of their lives. The school gets far more years than that to deal with crap (for whatever reason) teachers. That is utterly unnacceptable.
I'm not claiming that all or even most teachers are rubbish - the point is you (by that I mean our children) can't escape the crap ones.
this teacher incompetencephobia is being deliberately created by the state as a prelude to wholesale closures of schools, colleges and universities to isolate the teaching profession from the support of the rest of society. the demonisation of the teaching unions and teachers professional bodies will follow apace alongside wage cuts and sackings.
there are various levels of competence and ability in every trade and profession. always has been and always will be, from driving instructors to economics professors and by god did'nt the latter get it so wrong.
this issue arising at this time is no coincidence. does anyone really believe that the establishment really give's a shit how well the vast majority of our children are educated ?
while everyone looks to blame each other for their woes, look to the side, the slight of hand, the man behind the curtain. dont get sucked in to the debate, its a diversion.
come september, there will be fewer teachers.
I cant argue with that gulson.
I feel sorry for some of the teachers nowadays.
Imagine being a teacher whose only language is English, yet half the pupils in the teachers class, have English as their second language.
How can a teacher be expected to teach when half the class do not understand a bloody word the teacher is saying?
Plus the English speaking children will end up taking a back seat, as a lot of the time will be spent with those that cannot understand what the teacher is trying to teach.
Fecking crazy and some teachers must be pulling their hair out. No wonder so many great teachers have left the profession to be replaced by a bunch of idiots, who think that because they went to Uni they can teach.
I also heard from a friend who used to teach that so many teachers now will only teach through an agency, as he says they earn far more money, nothing wrong with that other than if there is a huge call for supply teachers as there seems to be, where are the fecking teachers who are supposed to be teaching?
At our local secondary school, half the teachers regularly have two days a month off sick on average. That equates to 24 days sick per year. No wonder the schools budget never lasts when they then have to pay huge ammounts to an agency for supply teachers.
Interestingly half the kids in our local primary schools cant speak welsh which causes no end of problems too.
Of course it never occurred to me it's the bloody foreigners.....how shortsighted of me
