I often wonder where education in the UK is headed. Honestly, it scares me. Serious reform is needed, and I know I'm not the only one thinking it. Even the government know something needs to be done. But the changes that come into effect just don't work.
1. I read an article entitled "Calls for reading and basic maths tests for new teachers" and I honestly thought I had read the title wrong. When I did my teacher training, I had to pass a literacy and numeracy test at the beginning and end of the course. Plus, to get into teaching in the first place, prospective teachers had to have achieved grade C or higher in their GCSE English and Maths (and this was recently increased to a grade B in Wales).
To enter the teaching profession, it would seem there is still a basic standard of literacy and numeracy. I think this is perfectly reasonable: if we want children to be well-educated, we need well-educated teachers. It was never a burden for me as I had a high level of literacy and numeracy anyway, and I was thrilled at the opportunity to share my knowledge with younger people.
The above article says "trainee teachers told MSPs at Holyrood their training did not give them the basic maths skills to educate primary seven pupils." I had always assumed that 'teacher training' was to train a person to be able to teach. I guess I was wrong. It would seem that some people enter teacher training expecting their training to include re-learning what should have been learnt at school.
This is the first problem with the current education system in the UK: teachers should know their subject well enough so that teacher training can focus on how to teach the subject.
2. Another problem: the changes in the curriculum and exams. Teachers having to spend extra time re-planning their teaching schedule because a non-teaching government official thought changing the syllabus was a good solution to improving education (in reality, enforcing a change to try to justify their official position).
3. I want to throw in the problem of pay. So many people have told me that teachers have it easy because of the holidays. So let's do a few calculations. To make sure we get an underestimate, let's ignore the amount of work teachers do outside of school hours (planning, marking and other paperwork) and assume they only work between 9am and 3pm: 6 hours per day.
Teachers are required to work 195 days a year. At 6 hours per day, that's 1170 hours per year. Considering the starting salary for a teacher is about £22,000 (and that's before we bring tax into the equation), that equates to £18.80 per hour.
Now let's consider the extra work teachers do. Let's increase the number of hours per day to 8, to account for some of the marking, and let's increase the number of 'working days' to 200. That's 1600 hours per year. This now gives an hourly wage of £13.75, before tax.
Now consider the labour costs of your plumber, electrician, car mechanic, painter or any other 'vocational' professions. Is £13.75 per hour really justifiable for someone who has to have spent 3 years at university to obtain a degree, followed by a teacher training course? Since teachers don't actually 'make more than you think', I guess even the government doesn't expect teachers to have basic mathematical skills.
4. Extra government-induced pressures: Grammar schools and other private schools see a lot more success, mainly due to entry exams and a much higher expectation of behaviour. And now the Conservatives think it's a good idea to make these independent schools make up the budget deficit by 'sponsoring' a state school? It sounds like good schools are now facing punishment from the government's failure.
5. There is also the problem of expectations, and this takes a number of forms.
Firstly, there's the case of the one or two pupils who disrupt the class and flatly refuse to follow the teacher's instructions. Nowadays, this results in the pupils blaming the teacher for the behaviour of the disruptive pupil(s). Plus, even those causing the disruption blame the teacher for their academic failure.
Secondly, there is a trend for pupils to think that their desired grades should be handed to them on a plate. Since they've been good and have an attendance record of over 98%, they feel entitled to that grade A.
Thirdly, there can be the expectation that pupils should be roughly performing at the same level in each subject. Personally, I was good at Maths but I hated History. My grade Es in History would have been seen as my failing, rather than me having an exceptional natural talent in Maths. I have seen this 'average across all subjects' cause emotional distress in pupils.
Fourthly, the expectation of parental involvement. As we get older, we forget things. When I was at school, it was expected to take 10 GCSEs, then narrow our field of study to just 3 or 4 A Levels. At university, only one (sometimes two, for joint honours) subject is studied. What happens to the knowledge of these other subjects? It is forgotten along the way. Whilst basic skills remain, unless specific knowledge is used over and over again, parents will not (and should not be expected to) be able to help their children with schoolwork. As a teacher, I never expected parents to help a child with their homework: if the child paid attention in class, they would manage the homework, unless...
Fifthly, if a pupil has a problem with their work, they seem more incline to ask their friends or parents for help. Surely their teacher should be their first port of call? I always expected pupils to ask me if they didn't fully understand in class. Perhaps this was unreasonable, since I was always amazed at how many pupils seemed happier with a lower mark than with coming to me for help.
Sixthly, most of this is tied up with the expectation that teachers should be so understanding of their pupils, able to counsel them through difficulties, never say a harsh word but be forever encouraging (even when a pupil does no work)... and always maintain adequate discipline. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that: life is competitive; hate crimes are real; some professional counsellors aren't very good; and when one person commits an atrocity, new/revised laws affect the whole of society, including the innocent.
Yes, there may be some tears, unpleasantness and even some minor injustices at school. Work through them, helping teachers to remain able to teach (their subject), knowing that these things will better prepare us for the real world: life after school.
Added to which, teachers are human beings too. They have a hard enough time with inspectors blaming them, not knowing which standards to conform to and the government changing the curriculum... teacher abuse by pupils is an under-reported crime because the emphasis is 'every child matters'... but not every teacher.
Reform is needed. Teachers need to be treated with respect or they'll keep walking away. Expectations need to be revised. Something sensible has to be done or the UK will become a very poorly educated country, affecting the lives of millions of children.
I am among a number of teachers who found that private tuition pays
much, much better than teaching in school. Added to which, there is less
paperwork, less marking and almost no behaviour issues. If this trend
continues, education will be only for the rich: those who can afford to pay for
private tuition for their children.
1. I read an article entitled "Calls for reading and basic maths tests for new teachers" and I honestly thought I had read the title wrong. When I did my teacher training, I had to pass a literacy and numeracy test at the beginning and end of the course. Plus, to get into teaching in the first place, prospective teachers had to have achieved grade C or higher in their GCSE English and Maths (and this was recently increased to a grade B in Wales).
To enter the teaching profession, it would seem there is still a basic standard of literacy and numeracy. I think this is perfectly reasonable: if we want children to be well-educated, we need well-educated teachers. It was never a burden for me as I had a high level of literacy and numeracy anyway, and I was thrilled at the opportunity to share my knowledge with younger people.
The above article says "trainee teachers told MSPs at Holyrood their training did not give them the basic maths skills to educate primary seven pupils." I had always assumed that 'teacher training' was to train a person to be able to teach. I guess I was wrong. It would seem that some people enter teacher training expecting their training to include re-learning what should have been learnt at school.
This is the first problem with the current education system in the UK: teachers should know their subject well enough so that teacher training can focus on how to teach the subject.
2. Another problem: the changes in the curriculum and exams. Teachers having to spend extra time re-planning their teaching schedule because a non-teaching government official thought changing the syllabus was a good solution to improving education (in reality, enforcing a change to try to justify their official position).
3. I want to throw in the problem of pay. So many people have told me that teachers have it easy because of the holidays. So let's do a few calculations. To make sure we get an underestimate, let's ignore the amount of work teachers do outside of school hours (planning, marking and other paperwork) and assume they only work between 9am and 3pm: 6 hours per day.
Teachers are required to work 195 days a year. At 6 hours per day, that's 1170 hours per year. Considering the starting salary for a teacher is about £22,000 (and that's before we bring tax into the equation), that equates to £18.80 per hour.
Now let's consider the extra work teachers do. Let's increase the number of hours per day to 8, to account for some of the marking, and let's increase the number of 'working days' to 200. That's 1600 hours per year. This now gives an hourly wage of £13.75, before tax.
Now consider the labour costs of your plumber, electrician, car mechanic, painter or any other 'vocational' professions. Is £13.75 per hour really justifiable for someone who has to have spent 3 years at university to obtain a degree, followed by a teacher training course? Since teachers don't actually 'make more than you think', I guess even the government doesn't expect teachers to have basic mathematical skills.
4. Extra government-induced pressures: Grammar schools and other private schools see a lot more success, mainly due to entry exams and a much higher expectation of behaviour. And now the Conservatives think it's a good idea to make these independent schools make up the budget deficit by 'sponsoring' a state school? It sounds like good schools are now facing punishment from the government's failure.
5. There is also the problem of expectations, and this takes a number of forms.
Firstly, there's the case of the one or two pupils who disrupt the class and flatly refuse to follow the teacher's instructions. Nowadays, this results in the pupils blaming the teacher for the behaviour of the disruptive pupil(s). Plus, even those causing the disruption blame the teacher for their academic failure.
Secondly, there is a trend for pupils to think that their desired grades should be handed to them on a plate. Since they've been good and have an attendance record of over 98%, they feel entitled to that grade A.
Thirdly, there can be the expectation that pupils should be roughly performing at the same level in each subject. Personally, I was good at Maths but I hated History. My grade Es in History would have been seen as my failing, rather than me having an exceptional natural talent in Maths. I have seen this 'average across all subjects' cause emotional distress in pupils.
Fourthly, the expectation of parental involvement. As we get older, we forget things. When I was at school, it was expected to take 10 GCSEs, then narrow our field of study to just 3 or 4 A Levels. At university, only one (sometimes two, for joint honours) subject is studied. What happens to the knowledge of these other subjects? It is forgotten along the way. Whilst basic skills remain, unless specific knowledge is used over and over again, parents will not (and should not be expected to) be able to help their children with schoolwork. As a teacher, I never expected parents to help a child with their homework: if the child paid attention in class, they would manage the homework, unless...
Fifthly, if a pupil has a problem with their work, they seem more incline to ask their friends or parents for help. Surely their teacher should be their first port of call? I always expected pupils to ask me if they didn't fully understand in class. Perhaps this was unreasonable, since I was always amazed at how many pupils seemed happier with a lower mark than with coming to me for help.
Sixthly, most of this is tied up with the expectation that teachers should be so understanding of their pupils, able to counsel them through difficulties, never say a harsh word but be forever encouraging (even when a pupil does no work)... and always maintain adequate discipline. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that: life is competitive; hate crimes are real; some professional counsellors aren't very good; and when one person commits an atrocity, new/revised laws affect the whole of society, including the innocent.
Yes, there may be some tears, unpleasantness and even some minor injustices at school. Work through them, helping teachers to remain able to teach (their subject), knowing that these things will better prepare us for the real world: life after school.
Added to which, teachers are human beings too. They have a hard enough time with inspectors blaming them, not knowing which standards to conform to and the government changing the curriculum... teacher abuse by pupils is an under-reported crime because the emphasis is 'every child matters'... but not every teacher.
Reform is needed. Teachers need to be treated with respect or they'll keep walking away. Expectations need to be revised. Something sensible has to be done or the UK will become a very poorly educated country, affecting the lives of millions of children.
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