Has the heart gone out of teaching? If so, what will it take to bring it back? Ros Coward reports

What makes someone become a teacher? That’s certainly a worthwhile question as, currently, there is a severe teacher shortage. The government seems to think it knows the answer, hastily rushing through measures to improve the financial situation of existing teachers, and trainee-teachers. But, are teachers really leaving for financial reasons?Personally, I’m not convinced. Teachers have always been relatively low paid, and I should know. My father taught in an inner London comprehensive. He never had any money, but he had kudos. He was considered clever by relatives and, by friends and pupils’ parents, an authority figure. There were inevitable pressures and crises, but plenty of satisfaction too. He enjoyed sharing his enthusiasms with young people, and never doubted he was doing something worthwhile. How many teachers can say that now?

Hard times
When I wrote an article about teaching, recently, many teachers wrote to me to describe how undervalued they felt. ‘I’ve had a gut full of opprobrium from inspectors and government ministers,’ said one. Another who had just resigned said, ‘It was the constant criticism from all sides, and the lack of a sense of dignity about what one was doing.’ All the feverish reforms, first initiated by the Tories and continued by David Blunkett, have involved a concerted attack on teachers’ competence and values. No wonder, there’s a teacher shortage; why would anyone want to belong to a profession which is undervalued, over-scrutinised and simultaneously blamed for so many social problems?

This is a distressing situation and, again, I know from first hand experience. My children were at primary school, as the Conservative under-investment in schools began to bite, and while staff were adjusting to the new demands of the National Curriculum and SATs. Their good school was forced to make numerous cuts. The first to volunteer for redundancy were the older, more experienced, ‘instinctive’ teachers, adored by the children, but who knew they couldn’t cope with new bureaucratic demands. There was no money for building or repairs, and ‘extra’ activities like swimming were abandoned.

Next page: a fresh crisis

Now at secondary school, they are being hit by chronic staff shortages. The figures are bad: nationally, the unfilled posts in secondary schools has risen to over 1,200. Anecdotally, the situation is known to be much worse. Numerous teachers are teaching subjects for which they are not qualified, and there is heavy reliance on ‘holiday’ teachers. Australians, New Zealanders and French seem to be the dominant groups. Great. The outcome of all those feverish reforms is the au-pair-isation of education.

What’s the cause?
Some sociologists suggest that women, who have traditionally dominated teaching because of its caring role, and compatibility with domestic obligations, now have far more choices. The Government blames the teacher shortage on low pay and spiralling housing costs, especially in the South East. But neither fully explains what is happening. It’s not just the difficulty of finding new recruits; there’s also been a haemorrhage of middle-aged teachers, who would normally be settled, in housing terms. It’s clear the satisfaction, which previously compensated for low pay, has been eroded and it’s this which needs to be addressed.

The real reason people enter teaching is because they enjoy their chosen subjects, they are keen to communicate this to the next generation, and, more nebulously, they enjoy being with young people as they learn. Most want children to find their true potential, and feel the current preoccupation with targets and league tables undermines this more interesting and complex task of drawing out a child’s desire to learn. ‘I don’t want to achieve targets,’ said one English teacher. ‘I want to challenge and encourage people. I want to look at and discuss literature.’ Most want to fire up enthusiasm. ‘It’s fantastic teaching young people, and they really do need our investment in them,’ said one French teacher at a Bedford comprehensive.

Next page: the power of education

Many see this as being as much about psychology and emotions as academic achievement. ‘Low achievers,’ said one London comprehensive school teacher, ‘need ‘self-esteem’, not performance targets. Education for me is the most powerful thing we can offer, to raise people from poverty, unhappiness, and to empower them.’ Not surprisingly, the profession has attracted many women, who are interested in precisely these areas. Satisfaction, as in any job, comes when those values are central to the profession as a whole. Self-esteem comes when pupils and society at large endorse those values. Yet, in the UK, this more challenging psychological aspect of teaching is undermined.

The bottom line
Admittedly, social factors played a part in destroying respect from parents, as do new self-imposed restrictions on intimate concern for pupils. But these pale into insignificance compared with the huge gulf between teachers’ core motivational values and what they are now being asked to do. Time and time again, we hear how teachers feel drowned by bureaucracy, by hours spent on form filling, writing out lesson plans, submitting documents for assessments, and focusing on endless new initiatives, be they SATs, league tables or performance-related pay. No satisfaction comes from reaching these new targets, as most teachers don’t think they are worth the paper they are written on. More students may get starred A-grades in exams, but teachers think the exams are easier and that the skills required to get such results are to do with fulfilling narrow targets, rather than true education.

So, throwing money at this crisis is not likely to solve it. High salaries won’t necessarily tempt teachers back. A new report by the National Association of Head Teachers shows that, even with London salaries nudging £100,000, there’s still ‘ a dire recruitment’ crisis. In 2000, 65% of all jobs had to be re-advertised. Instead of challenging the previous governments’ hostility to the teaching profession, this government has enthusiastically endorsed it, even to the point of keeping the notoriously prejudiced Chris Woodhead as chief inspector. Theirs is a grim view of education. It’s Charles Dickens’ Mr Gradgrind with a contemporary twist, the desire to weigh and measure children’s achievements.

Next page: what’s the answer?

The only remedy is to go back to basics. Not the three Rs at age-appropriate levels, but a general debate about the basics of what we want children to know; how to inspire affection, loyalty, morality, care for the environment, while encouraging independent thought and self-reliance. It’s only when the ideas are worth teaching that we’ll get teachers worth having.

More