miércoles, 30 de mayo de 2012

Schools get power to remove poor teachers within a term




Under the new arrangements, first announced last May, schools will be able to remove poor teachers from the classroom quickly. The process currently takes a year or longer.

The three-hour limit on observing teachers in the classroom will also be scrapped, to allow schools to decide on observation times. And teachers will be assessed every year against a set of key skills known as Teachers' Standards. The measures cover state schools in England.

The Department for Education is also consulting on proposals that would place a duty on schools to share information – if requested – on whether a teacher had been investigated for poor performance. This is aimed at stopping poor teachers being shuffled from school to school.

Speaking on BBC's Today programme, Michael Gove, the education secretary, said headteachers should be able to intervene more often and more quickly when "alarm bells were ringing and the red lights were flashing" over a teacher's incompetence.

Gove said that with the "right support", many teachers could improve their performance.

For other part, two teachers' unions condemned the move as "unnecessary and draconian", with one leader calling it a "potential bully's charter".

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The changes to the appraisal and capability policies will rightly be seen by teachers as an attack on their professionalism and will anger and depress them in equal measure."
She added: "What the government proposes is potentially a bully's charter. The union believes that many well-functioning schools, where development and professionalism is prized, will not adopt Mr Gove's model.

"If schools are serious about addressing the issue of teacher competence should it arise, they must do it in a fair fashion and not be constrained by a one-term time limit. It is far better to improve teachers than to seek measures to sack them."

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