The great British education experiment

"Most teachers are doing a good job," she told The Irish Times. "The national curriculum has bedded down and it has become a part of the culture. Teachers' skills are improving, but the pressures have increased on teachers, with national assessment and frequent inspections, an innovation overload, target-setting and national literacy and numeracy programmes.

"There are general difficulties in teaching, including the profession being held more accountable, the cost of living - especially in inner London - and the pay increase is nowhere near that given to the police. There is also a perception of additional and excessive bureaucracy."

The pressure on schools to deliver the improved standards demanded by Labour's focus on "education, education, education" is immense. Inspections by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) are intense, consuming experiences for teachers and schools. And in recent years, the low morale of teachers has been blamed, in part, on the tendency of the former chief inspector of schools in England, Chris Woodhead, to blame teachers for poor standards.

WITH the publication last week of Ofsted's annual report by its new chief inspector, Mike Tomlinson, there was an obvious change in emphasis from the inspectors. Praise for teachers and schools in disadvantaged areas was the main message, but it was mixed with a warning that staff shortages, worsening behaviour among some pupils, and a lack of progress among the 11 to 14 age group threatened the improvement in standards achieved over the last five years.

It was a cause for celebration that only one lesson in 20 was deemed unsatisfactory - compared with five in 20 in 1995 - and the proportion of "good" or "better" teaching rose from 40 per cent to 60 per cent over the same period. However, for the first time in recent years, inspectors found an increase in bad behaviour in secondary schools, with one in 12 reporting unsatisfactory behaviour among pupils.

And in a worrying development for ministers, who have played down union warnings about staff shortages, Ofsted reported a "clear link" between inadequate staff levels and poor performance, particularly in poor areas, where schools are much more likely to have temporary teachers.

Labour has recognised the link between poverty and underachievement in schools, but emphasises that it should not be used as an excuse. This, says Sammons, is part of the government's strategy to reduce pupil exclusions. Early in its first term in power, Labour was accused of promoting a "double negative" effect in schools, whereby headteachers were faced with a direct incentive to remove disruptive pupils so that these pupils, often underachievers, would not lower the school's position in league tables. "There's no easy answer to exclusions for policy makers, teachers and society," says Sammons. "The interests of society are not necessarily the same as the parents of the other children in class who want their child to learn, but see they are being disrupted."

The introduction of the "autumn package" in 1998 was a big step forward in addressing the exclusion/league table conundrum, says Sammons.

"It was a value-added package and to some extent has overcome the difficulties with league tables by comparing the performance of schools with similar schools and similar pupils."

The pace of reform in schools in England and Wales will undoubtedly be judged by results. The GCSE results last year recorded that fewer than half of the candidates - 49.2 per cent - sitting maths exams achieved a C grade or better. In English only half of boys - 50.8 per cent - achieved a C grade or better, with 66.4 per cent of girls achieving the same standard.

At A level, 68 per cent of candidates achieved a pass in 1982. Last year the pass rate rose to 89.1 per cent, but the argument over standards continues, with critics suggesting the exams are easier and schools arguing that when teachers raise standards the pupils respond accordingly.

In Scotland, teachers have secured important guarantees on financial matters and working standards from the devolved administration, but their counterparts in England and Wales appear to have lost the latest battle with Labour over pay.

Their concerns over teacher shortages have been recognised by Ofsted, but many teachers argue that a system which teaches more than eight million children in Britain needs more than just money - it needs vision and a greater understanding by policy makers of the difficulties faced in the classroom every day.