In last week’s autumn statement (remember that? Its thunder was rather stolen by the Duchess of Cambridge’s womb), George Osborne announced plans to scrap the national salary scheme for teachers, a pay-scale that enshrines teachers rewarded for loyalty and long-service. In its place, he proposes a system that gives individual head teachers power to set pay based on performance, representing a move towards deregulation of pay in the school system.
The Chancellor and the Education Secretary Michael Gove are attempting to argue that the introduction of a performance-based pay scale will “drive up teacher quality.” Gove commented after the statement that “these recommendations will make teaching a more attractive career and a more rewarding job”, going as far as to say that the new measures will “empower” schools to “recruit the best teachers.”
But one need only defer to one’s own school days to find ample evidence that the best teachers are not motivated by money. Take my A-Level English teacher as an example. He had taught for over 25 years, and was rewarded for his loyalty by gradually moving up the ranks to become head of English. His teaching stood out because he loved his subject, and he loved to educate. Such was this sexagenarian’s enthusiasm, that while teaching The Tempest to my class, he once jumped up on to a table-top to deliver a monologue. Perhaps if performance-related pay had been in effect at the time, he would have given that extra oomph to Caliban’s “noises and sweet airs” speech in order to move up that next pay bracket. But I don’t think so.
The notion that good teachers aren’t motivated by money has also been more comprehensively proved. A recent international survey by the OECD found that in countries where the teaching salary is relatively high, like the UK where the average starting salary for a teacher £23,010, performance-related pay was shown to lead to a decline in teaching standards.
Despite being educated at St Paul’s, Osborne can’t claim to be so ignorant about the state school system that he actually thinks this proposal will make teaching better. His motivations are summed up neatly by NUT leader Christine Blower:
Teachers are already suffering from pay freezes, job losses and increases in pension contributions – they now face pay cuts due to a policy based on ideology not evidence.
The NASUWT and ATL teachers’ unions are also critical of the proposals, and the NUT has voted to take “all appropriate action” to challenge threats to their national pay schemes.
Teachers are trying, and will continue to try, to educate the government on the folly of these measures. Unfortunately, given their track record, Cameron, Osborne, Gove and the rest of their gang are likely to sit sullenly at the back of the class talking amongst themselves, and refusing to listen to the teacher.
This article was updated on 13 December 2012. It previously stated that George Osborne was educated at Eton, not St Paul’s – this error has now been corrected.
Content from our partners
Related
