27th February 2006 Dear Prime Minister, Education and the Employment of TeachersI am writing on behalf of a teacher who has had a lot of problems over the years in finding suitable employment. When he first qualified as a teacher in 1976 he had great difficulty getting his first post. The reason being that he was newly qualified and schools wanted to employ experienced teachers In 1990 the introduction of the Local Management of Schools regulations (LMS) altered the situation facing newly qualified teachers they were to become the most sought-after group of teachers! Prior to the introduction of these regulations the local authority paid the teacher’s salary. There was little reason for schools to consider whether to employ an experienced teacher or a newly qualified one. In fact the newly qualified teacher would require ‘breaking in’ they need to be looked after, have untested paper qualifications and they need to use extra resources. We hoped that the situation would be resolved when the new labour government took office but this was not to be the case. In fact the situation has got worse, and is about to get even worse with the new Education White Paper 2006 The reality is that there is probably no shortage of teachers, many have just given up trying to gain employment. A few die-hards soldier on as supply teachers. Many teachers report that LMS has lead to dispirited staff , inability to find employment in another school, favouritism and behaviour more appropriate to a fascist state than a British school. The headteacher has always had great power but this has increased with LMS as they now have economic control and are free to exert pressure (supported by their personally appointed senior management team) on teachers to conform to the way he/she wants the school to run and its direction. Didn't the local authority (LA) once have the power to employ staff for a particular school and redirect them to another school if they felt that it was necessary or desirable, taking into account the interests of the teacher and the school. Didn't also the LA have its own inspectorate which could look after staff and have a greater role in training and didn't headteachers have to take more care when making decisions that may have a discouraging effect on the morale of staff? Yours sincerely |
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A reply to the letter to the PM above has been included below. The text of the letter and formatting is identical to that received the only alteration being the addition of paragraph numbers for reference |
| department for education and skills creating opportunity, releasing potential, achieving excellence
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| A reply to the letter from the Department for Education and Skills is posted below. |
| Elaine Gordon Dept for Education & Skills Castle View House PO Box 12 Runcorn Cheshire, WA7 2GJ |
A. Citizen 100 Any road Typical Town County |
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Your Ref: 2006/0215873 Dear Elaine Gordon RE: Education and the Employment of Teachers 1. Yes, I understand that the PM is a very busy man, but I sure he likes to keep in touch and has staff to manage his mail. Unfortunately, your letter does not actually address the main issue that was raised in my letter. That there are teachers of outstanding quality who are unemployed because of Local management of Schools (LMS). 2. The competition for posts that you mention, is I am sure, only among newly qualified teachers. Government policy, has as you point out, even encouraged the supply of new teachers, at the expense of well-qualified and experienced teachers. Teacher numbers may be at their highest since 1981 but this still does not meet the increase in children to be taught. Classroom size increased over that period to a high. 3. There may be fewer vacancies now but I do not have statistics for classroom size beyond 1999. The simply appalling truth is that according to your figures, which may be better or worse; since your data is based on Jan 2005 figures, there are still over 3,000 vacancies! 4. School budgets tight? Surely this is part of my argument, because of LMS there is likely to be mismanagement both of staff and capitation. There should, surely, be little variation in funding of schools; the funding for schools should be fair, either all schools find themselves with a tight budget (not enough money) or none. The tendency for interviewing panels is, to ask: do we really need this chap given his remarkable experience and qualifications, for this particular post? Bearing in mind that several thousand pounds will be saved if the younger less experienced teacher is appointed. Invariably, the cheaper teacher will be employed. 5. LMS is not better for staff or children it was mistakenly brought in by the last Conservative Government. The proper management of education should be by professional staff within each Local Educational authority (LEA) and these LEA’s should have the power to appoint staff for placement within that authority. Unfortunately, mentioning Ministers’ beliefs is rather inappropriate at this time as our present Prime Minister has been badly let down by some of his Ministers.
The “new blood” you refer to, that a newly qualified teacher could bring fresh ideas to a school is invariably, the result of that trainee’s educational development, the ideas have come from their training; from older experienced educationalists, and is rather insulting to those teachers who continue to reflect, read, and add to their academic and practical skills qualifications usually at their own expense.
Yours sincerely A. Citizen
PS I note that our Prime Minister didn’t appoint “new blood” to his recent reshuffle. Of course not, he needs the most experienced personnel by his side. |
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A reply to the letter above is included below. I have added paragraph numbers to facilitate ease of reference and the formatting has been changed as the document could not be easily OCR scanned |
| department for education and skills creating opportunity, releasing potential, achieving excellence
Dear Citizen, Thank you for your
further letter about the recruitment of teachers and school funding
methods. As previously stated, Ministers do not believe there is any
evidence that schools generally choose to appoint cheaper teachers.
Schools recognise the benefits of a wide range of ages, skills and
experiences amongst their workforce In addition, the
Government actively encourages people who wish to return to teaching and
there is plenty of help available for qualified teachers wanting to return
to the profession. For example, the Training and Development Agency for
Schools (TDA)
runs a Return to Teach programme which is specifically targeted at those
who are contemplating a return to teaching. The TDA's recent survey on
those completing a returner course revealed that 61% of those teachers who
had completed a course had already returned to teaching and a further 13%
are actively looking for teaching posts. With regard to your comment on
class sizes, in fact, the overall teacher: pupil ratio has dropped each
year since 2000. In January 2006, the overall teacher:pupil ratio was 17.2
and the number of pupils in maintained nursery and primary schools has
been falling since 1998. This trend is expected to continue over the next
few years. It is also projected that the number of pupils in maintained
secondary schools will fall over the next 10 years. As you are aware, the
number of teacher vacancies in maintained schools has dropped each year
since 2000.
The latest count shows in January 2006 shows there were 2,200 teacher
vacancies in England. Details can be found on the Department's website at
I have noted
your further comments about local management of schools (LMS), including
staffing powers in schools. There are no plans to reverse the delegation
of such powers which have been generally accepted by schools, and who have
become accustomed to delegation in its various forms since the first
introduction of local management in the early 1990s
The
Department
accepts that LMS can be challenging for some schools, but in these
circumstances heads and governing bodies should seek support from the
education finance team in the local authority (LA).
In terms
of
school funding, the Department has regular meetings with our education
partners - national bodies representing LAs, headteachers, teacher unions
and governors; they have not expressed any similar views in favour of
reversing local management.
Yours sincerely
Phil Turner
Public
Communications Unit |
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A reply to the letter above is in preparation |