Trust them, they’re professionals

James Gubb, 5 October 2007

The frustrations of being a teacher in the state sector are neatly encapsulated in the pages of today’s Times Education Supplement (TES). There is the usual medley of difficulties faced daily in schools: the weekly discussion about issues with testing and exam arrangements, the independence of schools jeopardised by central control and of course the still-raging school dinners debate. But it is two pieces in particular which illustrate the contradictions in teaching today. The first piece is an editorial by the chief executive of the General Teaching Council (GTC) arguing that teachers need to earn their professionalism; the second piece tells us of the government’s aspiration to emulate the supermarket chain Tesco in schools.

Writing in the TES today, GTC chief executive Keith Bartley argues for what he calls ‘active registration’, whereby teachers would be required to do ‘continued training’. The aim of this would be to make teachers more professional, by essentially, updating their skills. As it stands, teachers are fully registered solely on the basis of paying their fees and not violating the terms of registration (through misconduct, for example).
Putting forth the case for active registration, Keith Bartley questions perceptions about teachers’ status today. ‘How is the profession regarded by government, parents, pupils and the wider public?’ he asks.
The answer to how the government regards teaching is illustrated in the next article – ‘Let’s learn from Tesco’. Learning something from the supermarket world’s top dog is not the problem; school choice advocates after all champion competition as the essence of success.
It’s the reason that ministers are looking at the Tesco model which is worrying: in order to remedy the current ‘variability’ between schools. Again, consistency is not necessarily problematic, whereas learning chasms between schools absolutely are. However past precedent has shown us what reducing variability translates as under New Labour: straight jacketing teachers and stripping them of their professionalism.
Which is why the focus on standards in the education system has instead led to damaging standardisation.
So whilst the GTC is right to worry that teaching is not considered to be sufficiently professional, the answer lies not in active registration schemes, but in the government’s treatment of teachers.
By Anastasia de Waal