UK Teaching Resources Slip In International League Tables.
The opportunity for teachers to inspire the learning process in children can last them a lifetime, and in turn, influence the commercial direction of the UK. But at the moment teachers are hounded towards test results that are reducing the learning content for children and causing concern amongst teachers. A solution could be found in fulfilling the growing need to grant teachers a realistic level of recognition of their standing in society, salary and performance parameters needed to attract the very best teachers.
The influence of a teachers work in the classroom has strategic consequences for generations of schoolchildren as subsequent fledged adults. But if we want the best teachers to support this strategic objective we cannot afford to pay peanuts.
Anyone compiling a job evaluation analysis of the teaching resources needed in our schools would reveal a conundrum. Although we could argue teachers are paid a reasonable salary they are certainly not paid the King’s ransom enjoyed by the likes of investment bankers and hedge fund managers. Yet both professions are taking equal risks with the national economy. Teachers are in part responsible for initiating the skill base in children necessary to ultimately build and support the national economy.
For many years there has been a downbeat impression of our teaching standards. The national curriculum aimed at injecting renewed pace and structural learning has fallen well short of this intention. Overall standards are down; teachers are blamed, tens of thousands of children fail at primary school to be processed regardless into secondary school where they are doomed to understandably fail to thrive. These same children probably go on to drag down the performance of the classes they attend whilst they divert the teacher, who unable to spend the extraordinary time to address any deficiency, leaves the child to do the best they can. No sensible commercial operation would release sub-standard components to pass onto the next stage in production with the obvious outcome of substandard finished products. Built in faults rarely have the capacity to correct themselves.
And so we see an alarming percentage of children complete secondary education with insufficient credentials to enter meaningful employment. But can we really blame teachers? Their job is perhaps one of the few that can constructively make or break the enthusiasm in the children they teach. The constant pressure to hit targets convinces a staggering number of new teachers to leave the profession within a few years. The chance of children being groomed by good experienced teachers is perhaps lost forever. Most of those who remain accept the stuffing has been knocked out of the job. They knuckle down to hit targets, adopt the latest in a long line of initiatives and generally spend most of their time fighting the system.
And in the meantime we slip further down the international league table for the quality of our education. We lie in around 25th position , way behind many far eastern countries who have moved to dominate the schooling standards in line with the demands emerging with the commercial polarisation to the east. Our role in the world order is destined to change over the next few years. We need our children’s education to match the flexibility that will be demanded of them in the modern job market. And we desperately need great teachers with the social standing and ability to achieve this objective. Such a strategy must have full government support that can really only be addressed by an Education Secretary that can remain in the post for five years, and a prime minister that addresses the long term needs of education rather than overseas invasions.
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