It seems some pretty powerful people agree with the last few blogs that I have been writing!
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) says that teachers need to be given “status, pay and professional autonomy”
Status is the key word, as a society we must value the status of teachers, the level of professionalism they have and the role in the development of our children and our children’s future.
The report on the BBC Education website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17357646) goes on to suggest that the most successful education systems are based on embracing the very best students into teaching as a career. As we said earlier teachers become teachers because they want to teach, not as a fallback option that many people outside education believe.
The report ends by suggesting that teachers across the industrialised world are not receiving levels of pay that reflect their importance. It’s not necessarily the pay status, but that would ensure the very best students aren’t put off teaching as a career in financial terms, but the esteem that we should hold in teachers.
In Finland a high social status is attached to teaching, thus ensuring that 90% of all applicants for teacher training are turned away.
As Angela at the Kip McGrath Musselburgh centre replied to our blog if a tutor with no teaching qualifications had a passion for teaching “they’d have to go through the interview selection AND BE ACCEPTED onto the course, pass their teacher training exams and get through their probationary period”
The OECD are right to highlight the need to improve the status and quality of teachers; we need to highlight the fact that there are individuals and companies making money from educating children with no formal qualifications in teaching.
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