01.05.12
Payment by results for teachers suggested
A plan to introduce performance-related pay in schools has been proposed by MPs, with weak teachers being paid less and stronger teachers offered higher salaries and the opportunity for paid sabbaticals.
Developing a clearer link between pay and classroom performance could boost results and attract the best graduates into the profession, a report by the Commons Education Select Committee suggests.
International evidence cited in the report implies that the worst teachers could cost a class the equivalent of £250,000 in lost future earnings compared with those taught by an average performer.
The education secretary Michael Gove has written to Ofsted to seek advice on the issue and recommendations are expected in September.
The report reads: “No longer should the weakest teachers be able to hide behind a rigid and unfair pay structure. We believe that performance management systems should support and reward the strongest teachers, as well as make no excuses – or, worse, incentives to remain – for the weaker.
“Given the profound positive and negative impacts which teachers have on pupil performance, we are concerned that the pay system continues to reward low-performers at the same levels as their more successful peers.”
But Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “Payment by results is total nonsense. Children are not tins of beans and schools are not factory production lines. Successful schools rely on a collegiate approach and team working. Performance-related pay is not only inappropriate but also divisive.
“Children and young people differ and class intakes differ from year to year making it impossible to measure progress in simplistic terms.”
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