The great British education experiment

When Doug McAvoy, general secretary of Britain's National Union of Teachers (NUT), was asked for his response to the British government's announcement of a 3.7 per cent pay for rise for teachers in England and Wales two weeks ago, his reaction was both memorable and predictable. Almost spluttering into the television camera, Doug could hardly disguise his disbelief. How on earth did the government expect to attract graduates into teaching with such a package? And where was the incentive for teachers to remain in the profession? "If the government thinks that a 3.7 per cent increase in the pay bill will deal with the recruitment crisis, it really is living in another world," he said. "The government complacently believes it can pile more and more work onto our teachers. It has done nothing to limit their working hours, nor to ensure they have time outside the classroom during the school day - both of which have been guaranteed in Scotland."

The education system in Britain, particularly in England and Wales, is in a constant state of flux. On one hand, gold stars for excellence in standards are handed out to hundreds of state and grammar schools; on the other, one in four secondary schools in England - some 850 - do not have enough money to pay for books and equipment for their pupils.

Of course, such examples illustrate only the high and low ends of the scale of standards in schools. In between, thousands of schools, teaching more than eight million children across Britain, pass the school term fairly uneventfully.

Outbursts such as McAvoy's against New Labour's initiative on pay and recruitment shed light on painful, deep-rooted problems facing teachers. Standards in schools may be increasing and the government may be spending more money on education - Labour has pledged an extra £12 billion over the next three years - yet some schools in the south-east of England have introduced a four-day week because they do not have enough teachers to cover all classes. Anecdotal evidence suggests teacher morale is fragile, mainly due to a mixture of government bureaucracy and, in some cases, a perception that there is little room for initiative in the classroom.

The Education and Employment Secretary, David Blunkett, insists the introduction of teacher-training salaries of £6,000 and £4,000, "golden hellos" for new teachers in the shortage subjects of maths, science, technology and modern languages, have boosted recruitment. His admission that without the incentives recruitment would have been "close to meltdown" was rather more worrying. Nonetheless, the latest figures from the Graduate Teacher Training Registry (GTTR) show applications for teacher-training courses in England and Wales have increased by 12 per cent since this time last year. By February 5th this year, the number of applications to postgraduate certificate of education (PGCE) courses stood at 19,986 - compared with 17,908 applications at the same point last year. There was more good news from the GTTR. Applications for teaching chemistry at secondary school were up by 45 per cent, physics up by 23 per cent and technology up by 52 per cent. However, the figures mask the shortfalls. Last year, the numbers of secondary-school teachers being trained fell 13 per cent short of the government's target - 14,508 compared with the required 16,615. There is also a large amount of wastage. Some 40 per cent of the estimated 30,000 people who began teacher-training courses in England and Wales each year since 1998/1999 did not enter the classroom.

Research into teacher shortages and retention carried out by Professor Alistair Ross, director of the Institute for Policy Studies in Education, has shown that although the Teacher Training Agency is trying harder than ever to attract new recruits, it is an uphill task.

THE latest government figures show that teacher vacancies are running at about 0.8 per cent, although there are large regional variations, with London vacancies currently at 2.6 per cent. Head teachers report that posts are often filled by short-contract teachers and non-specialists.

The NUT argues, however, that the figures conceal examples of teachers "doubling up" and teaching two subjects, that technicians have been asked to teach science subjects and schools are recruiting teachers among Australian back-packers travelling in Britain.

The government's 3.7 per cent pay increase may help the situation, but when teachers in England and Wales look north of the border to Scotland and see teachers there receiving a pay increase of 10 per cent and a guaranteed maximum 35-hour week, their reward seems small.

Other factors affecting teacher numbers and retention include higher graduate salaries outside teaching and a gradual introduction of management-style teaching, seen by some teachers to have threatened professional autonomy.

Pam Sammons, professor of education at the Institute of Education at the University of London, argues that a move towards a centrally-based system of assessing educational standards in the mid1980s has increased pressure on teachers.