BBC’s Panorama recently revealed that only 18 UK teachers have been fired for incompetency over the last forty years, despite estimates that 17,000 teachers are not up to the job. Rather than stopping teaching altogether, some bad teachers instead move between schools.
But what does it mean to be an ‘incompetent teacher’? Lack of control over the classroom, poor results and a lack of understanding of the subject are the most likely candidates. Speaking from experience of my own schooling at a standard comprehensive, there were certainly teachers falling short because of these typical problems. There were indeed an awful lot of very uninspiring teachers with little to no passion to teach.
Incompetent teaching is something we should be extremely concerned by. We wouldn’t want to be treated by an incompetent doctor so why should children be taught by incompetent teachers? Children are, essentially, putting their futures into the hands of this profession and good teaching is fundamental to their continuation of education and future career path. Although of course it is a two-way relationship, as children must want to be taught in order to be taught well; a sign of a good teacher is one that can teach even those that don’t want to be there.
Of course, whilst bad teachers are apparently wide spread, they are still a minority in comparison to most teachers who are incredibly talented and able to control the classroom despite the obvious obstacle that a lot of children simply don’t want to be taught.
However a different problem with teaching that may often be swept under the carpet, is the poor standard of substitute teachers. Whilst I can understand the difficulty a school faces when teachers call in sick and there is a classroom full of kids waiting to be taught, supply teachers are often drafted in for much longer than a couple of days, and often provide substitute teaching for months. Lack of experience coupled with minimal training and subject knowledge means children are often being taught by extremely substandard supply teachers. Schools with major staff shortage issues often set supply teachers with the task of simply keeping a class busy, which if prolonged, can lead to deterioration of behaviour and grades, with the supply teacher essentially being just an adult in the room in order to meet statutory requirements.
Again speaking from experience, supply teachers were a very common feature of my school, and the “keep them busy” method was frequently used. A years’ worth of supply teachers for Science during my GCSE year was a great hindrance to my class with many of us resorting to a self-taught method. Whilst I must admit supply teachers did indeed at times face very unruly classes and much ridicule, they never seemed to have any real knowledge of the subject they were covering and usually tended to chuck a few worksheets our way just to keep us busy for an hour.
Children deserve quality teaching and expert knowledge from a permanent fully qualified teacher rather than weeks on end of supply teaching. Whilst schools do of course suffer major shortages, and often face no choice but to employ supply teachers, long-term methods must be looked at in order to combat this shortage, without cutting corners and short changing children of their deserved education.
