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What teachers want
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
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