Last September, performance criteria for heads and deputies were introduced which will lead to full-blown performance reviews by governors from September 1997. The pay dimension will create many tensions and place unreasonable expectations on many governing bodies.
It never ceases to amaze me that the awarding of performance-related pay, which is anathema to most teachers, is seen by the STRB as an appropriate function for untrained volunteer governors. Any self-respecting business would not dream of introducing PRP unless it was piloted and resourced and, above all, devised by a properly qualified personnel manager.
There is enough concern over the implementation of the pre-1996 pay system for heads and deputies without adding further complexity to a role that many governors fight shy of.
David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, writing in last week’s TES
