The importance of sacking bad teachers

The opposition of the National Union of Teachers to the government’s plans to make it easier to fire bad teachers is entirely predictable. The NUT has long placed the interests of the worst of its members above those of the children being educated in the state system.

Given what we know about just how crucial good teaching is to a child’s educational achievement then it is absolutely vital that the coalition does push these changes through. One of the most important parts of these changes is ending the process by which bad teachers are simply shuffled around the system.

Academy schools already have the power to vary pay. But, sadly, few are choosing to use it. For the corollary of making it easier to fire bad teachers is that good teachers should be paid more than average ones.