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Tonight’s BBC Panorama programme reported upon the issue of incompetent teachers.
Despite estimating that there are 15000+ incompetent teachers in English schools and recognising the enormous damage that incompetent teachers can do to the children in their charge, the programme’s conclusion was that there is NOTHING that parents can do about it.
The documentary revealed that only 18 teachers have been struck off for incompetence in the past 40 years, despite teacher numbers of over 500,000.
Chris Woodhead, former Chief Inspector of Schools for England, told programme that there could be thousands of incompetent teachers at large in the UK.
The programme focused on the impact that bad teachers have on pupils: potentially making the difference between acceptance or not at university or getting or not getting a job.
Woodhead said teacher incompetence was a serious issue. He explained: “You tell me a profession where there aren’t 5%, 10% of members who are incompetent? The strange thing about the public sector in general and teaching in particular is that no-one will admit that there is this problem.”
I know exactly what he means. During ten years consulting in the public sector I came across at least a dozen very senior managers who were clearly incapable of even adequate performance. They were kept in place by Chief Executives who were aware of their shortcomings, but felt powerless to do anything about it. In cases where action was taken, none were sacked and at least one was shipped off to a directorate where he was presumably deemed to be less harmful.
Using data from Freedom of Information requests, Panorama concluded that the system meant to identify incompetent teachers is not functioning, and that incompetent teachers are actually being moved from school to school rather than sacked in a game of “pass the parcel”. Parents, the programme said, felt powerless to change the situation.
I don’t know about you, but I do not feel powerless. If there is no official route to resolving the problem, there is always our ability as parents to withdraw our children from the classroom. Given the extent of damage that bad teachers can do to your children, would you be prepared to continue to send your child into a classroom to receive what is, at best, a poor education and, at worst, psychological or physical abuse?
Do you have doubts about a teacher at your children’s school? Do you believe that your children or others have been damaged educationally, physically or psychologically? Have you taken any action in an attempt to resolve the problem?
On this issue and on many others, isn’t it time parents had an opinion? Please share your experience below.
My daughter had a catastrophic time with two teachers during her A level years at a local secondary school. One teacher was not up to the standard and despite several attempts at trying to persuade the headmaster of this, the subject was dropped after the first year (after intervention by Ofsted) which meant that my daughter had to change subjects. She also had to drop another subject because after we complained (yet again) of the teaching standard, the teacher refused to teach her! Fortunately, she went on to study that subject at college and is now starting a degree in it (after being told by that member of staff that she wasn’t that good!!!!) As parents we felt that we were nagging the school and being troublesome – whereas in fact in any other job, both teachers would have been fired long ago. The LEA instructs parents to see the headteacher first if they have doubts about teachers and then the governing body. In theory this is fine – in practise they will nearly always side with the member of staff. As will the LEA. The only teachers who seem to leave involuntarily are those found guilty of serious professional breaches (usually sexual). I concluded after 2 years of letter writing and meetings that something has to be done to stop school staff “closing ranks” and that there needs to be an independent body to resolve such issues and – if needs be- ensure that teachers who fall below the mark are dealt with appropriately.
The alternative to an independent body is the determination of parents to take responsibility themselves. Whilst we accept private, cosy meetings, hidden from public view, instances like yours of weak and incompetent school management will continue to prevail. Parents need to raise their heads above the parapet and demand the quality of education we pay for – unfortunately I’m not holding my breath!
Thanks for your comments.
Perhaps if the law in the UK was changed to give children in schools the same legal protection from bad teachers as squirrels appear to have from residents in private gardens. And the law was changed to make it a legal requirement of all schools and Local Authority education staff, teachers & governors to report all incompetent biased and bad teachers to the Local Authority, GTC and Police immediately on becoming aware or on receiving serious complaints about incompetent or biased bullying teachers conduct towards pupils. So that it became a criminal offence for any school or local authority employee to knowingly cover-up or allow an incompetent biased bad teacher to remain teaching in a school, without reporting these teachers to the appropriate legal authority. Parents and Pupils might have more confidence in obtaining an equal education from all teachers in schools and be prepared to make complaints about bad teachers to schools and Local authorities.
The recent Panorama program Can I sack a Teacher’ and July newspaper articles have confirmed what many parents and pupils already know: that many school Governors, Head teachers and local education officers are more concerned to protect the reputation of a school and so are prepared to cover up for bad teachers, rather than report or suspend a minority of bad teachers to protect the education and emotional welfare of their school pupils. I suggest sadly reflects the current apathy in schools attitude towards bad teachers that reflects badly on the many excellent teachers in schools.
Frustrated parent
July 2010