“Why are you a teacher, Mr Chan?” is a question I am often asked by my students. You may expect me to respond by affirming my commitment to guiding the next generation, a yearning desire to share my knowledge and experience, or perhaps just simply a deep love of my subject. However, rather than expecting such lofty answers, underlying the question is often a sense of exclamation or even of morbid curiosity: Why would you even consider being a teacher in a state school?
Such low perception of teaching is not intended to be an insult. Rather, it is an accurate observation of the reality of overwork and underappreciation. Compounded by the colossal funding cuts which many schools will face because by the government’s new funding formula, these problems are at the heart of the current teaching crisis, on which the Education select committee published a report at the end of last month.
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