Should Michael Gove be given detention?

Welcome to the guest blog for this week. Teresa is a teacher and ferocious critic on the blog. Let's hear her views on the proposed education reforms... 

 

Education reforms! Hurrah! Smartly dressed students, taught by good teachers, in schools that have independence from local authorities (granted to them by central government), well grounded in “proper” subjects and going through an education system which will echo those of the leading countries in the world. All supervised by talented teachers who have increased powers over their students! Happy days... or are they?

Many of the proposed changes will seem like music to the ears of many. Although the previous government invested heavily in new schools and did transform the vocational qualification sector, it failed to improve educational standards.  Worse still the gap between rich and poor widened.

Secretary of State for
Education Michael Gove

Well, a new building does not make for a better school and re-arranging catchment areas does not cause deprived children to evaporate. Also, so much of the new curriculum was an attempt at figure massaging ( one particular ICT course which was equivalent to 5 GCSEs!). In addition, the assessment of many of the vocational subjects is portfolio based, which means that being able to file bits of paper does not mean you understand what is written on them.


Recruitment into the teaching profession brought much young talent but lets keep in mind that these new teachers survive on average for 5 years. The fact is that many teachers get trapped in a job they no longer want to do and after a few years they are too expensive to move sideways, so they leave teaching altogether. Many teachers are disgusted by the way in which this most noble of professions is being defined and shaped by market forces. Sentimentality set aside for a moment, how can any government or any society expect to shape their young with the help of a work force that sees teaching as a stepping stone to their next career? Of course the students can’t possibly benefit from such a high turnover of teachers and being constantly educated by the inexperienced and the trainee.

The cause for this loss of talent is largely owed to the poor behaviour of students and of course the loss of power teachers have suffered. When corporal punishment ceased it was replaced with ..... nothing! This is better known as a power vacuum and it needs to be addressed urgently. Tweaking the detention system is not going to be enough. If I had been confronted in my difficult teens by someone I knew was powerless to punish me in any way and if I thought I could cause them more trouble than they could cause me.... then I really don’t what I would have done!

One of the issues not mentioned in the white paper is the middle and upper management increase. Teaching has been flooded by the creation of what I would describe as “office” jobs. People in charge of Special Needs, Attendance, Gifted and Talented etc etc. The list is long. Often these posts come with very big salaries but little time in the classroom. This pressure has led, of course, to heavier timetables for classroom teachers. There is no point giving an average of adult to student ratio, when this is not the case in the classroom, where adult presence really matters, not in office far away.

Too many holidays?Do we want 
teachers roaming our streets?

I want to believe that these changes will improve the situation. However, the government need to think twice about any change at all. This has been part of the problem for teachers, the constant change! New curriculum, new methods, old OFSTED, new OFSTED, NVQs, one “initiative” after another. The landscape is unrecognisable and constantly changing. No one in their right mind would fight change if it was for the best. But every single government seems to have an opinion of education and they all shamelessly use these superimposed changes to gain votes from the middle classes.

As a country, we cannot afford to waste talent and we can’t afford to allow a whole class of people to under perform and underachieve. An old fashioned saying I admit, “the devil makes work for idle hands”. These are the facts of the English education system. The half term, a British institution that serves no other purpose other than create a poor work ethic among our young and create a childminding nightmare for hard working parents. Another fact, progression from one class to another is guaranteed, regardless of performance! Most detentions are given for bad behaviour not for lack of work or poor quality work. Another fact, some parents and pupils are united by one single educational ambition, to sack a teacher. Tweaking is not going to be enough to reverse these trends.

We need our talented headteachers to finally start representing their staff and listening to them instead of “managing” them. We need politics to be kept out of the classroom and sent back to Westminster.