I was both intrigued and gratified to read the letters and comments written by job-seekers in the Letters and Talkback sections (TES, May 17). Being a holder of the Post-graduate Certificate in Education graduate (July 1995) and a determined job-seeker for 16 long months, I have experienced, with consistent regularity, the strange (and unique?) world of the teaching application system.
The amount of money that is spent on such a venture is, perhaps, not considered by those who have designed this system, and there seems to be even less consideration towards the demoralised candidates, who frequently receive no response from schools after applying for posts.
This lack of professionalism might feasibly be put down to low budgets in individual schools, but I feel, as others also evidently do, that it is unreasonable that there are many unemployed, debt-ridden, job-seeking, teachers out there, whose budgets are even lower, but who have no choice but to cover the entire cost of applying for jobs.
I would suggest the use of a central database, in which the basic information required by schools concerning candidates could be filed under our Department for Education and Employment numbers.
This could cut down the repetitiveness of the application system and help us to focus on the real requirements of the job via a more personal system.
N ROBERTS
Salisbury 13 Ayleswade Road Salisbury
