Pages

Sir Michael Wilshaw: Who Is This Kn**?

I can't move for Sir Michael telling me what he's going to be up to as the expected new Ofsted chief. Aside from mouthing off to news reporters about how he fancies himself as Dirty Harry, he's pretty much already told the entire teaching profession that he's out to get them from day one.

This cements Ofsted's widely criticised position as existing solely to oppose teachers and schools, rather than work with them to deliver outstanding education and improve standards. Looks like they will continue to be the national society of teacher bashers, and that this chum of Michael Gove will be appointed the teacher basher general.

Again he is subject to this odd belief that there are hundreds of incapable teachers just having a lovely old time at work, teaching rubbish lessons, ruining kids lives and getting away with it. My own experience, and that of most teachers I speak to, is that they are already walking on egg shells, under constant supervision and are getting pulled up over very small things, some of which are not even within their control.

There is no crisis in the quality of teaching, and certainly taking a heavier hand with capability proceedings is not the answer. If you want to keep the bar unnecessarily high though, then coming down like a ton of bricks on anyone who doesn't make it isn't the way to get there. How about helping people to reach it, properly?

He seems to acknowledge some of the issues surrounding the poor working life of teachers, in that he recognises teachers quite often have to pick up where parents drop the ball, and that many teachers are suffering from burnout. Apparently only the 'good' teachers suffer from burnout though, and that can be remedied by giving them more time off, at the taxpayer's expense.

Read more:
Labels:

0 comments:

Post a Comment