By Vivienne Russell | 1 May 2012
The best teachers should be rewarded with enhanced pay, MPs recommended today.
In a report on teacher recruitment and retention, the Commons education select committee called on the Department for Education to study remuneration in other countries and develop proposals for a system that rewards teachers ‘who add the greatest value to pupil performance’.The MPs added that although a performance-related pay system would present political and practical problems, ‘the comparative impact of an outstanding teacher is so great that we believe such difficulties must be overcome’.
The report highlighted the effect excellent teaching had on pupil outcomes, noting that it built their confidence and boosted their earnings and wellbeing in later life.
Committee chair Graham Stuart said: ‘The differential effectiveness between teachers is profound and there is an overwhelming need to increase the number of more effective teachers and, likewise, to reduce the number with whom children learn at a slow rate.’
He added that more people needed to be encouraged to consider teaching as a profession. The committee is recommending a new system of ‘taster sessions’, allowing people to experience teaching before committing themselves to a training course.
‘The government needs to market teaching more effectively and consistently so that, like the most successful countries in education, there is more competition to enter the profession and a greater likelihood of selecting the best,’ Stuart said.
Other recommendations include a College of Teaching, which would offer practising teachers further professional development. Teachers should also be able to take sabbaticals to conduct research or experience employment in a related field.
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, agreed that good quality of teaching was essential to high education standards and called for a renewed focus in this area.
He said: ‘It means a change of rhetoric, to celebrate rather than condemn the profession; it means a closer look at recruitment, better training and competitive rewards. Need we mention that cutting people's pay and pensions is unlikely to help?’
Schools minister Nick Gibb said the government would respond to the committee’s recommendations in due course, but he said: ‘Although the quality of our teachers is very high, many top graduates who could make a huge difference to children’s education are choosing other professions. This report supports the government’s strategy for teacher recruitment as being appropriately focused on attracting top graduates into the profession and giving them outstanding training.
‘We have also asked the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) to make recommendations on introducing greater freedoms and flexibilities in teachers’ pay, including how to link it better to performance.’
