THE Government’s favourite think-tank has warned that teacher recruitment will continue to decline long term unless the profession is put back in charge of its own destiny.
According to a draft report from Demos, Labour needs to persuade teachers of the need for change and then leave them to get on with it, rather than continue to force upon them large numbers of initiatives.
The draft report, commissioned by the National Union of Teachers and based on interviews with 82 teachers in England and Wales, recommends experienced teacers should be labelled “expert practitioners”, with a standing comparable to hospital consultants. The NUT compares this to the charter status of senior teachers in Scotland.
John Bangs, the NUT’s head of education, said: “One of the key findings is that many of the most experienced teachers have so little confidence in what they do now that they want to pass that responsibility over to outside agencies, to be told what to do down to the last detail.”
‘The Future of the Teaching Profession’ is due out this autumn
