This morning, the Education Secretary went on the Today programme to explain his plans to make it easier to sack teachers. Here’s the full transcript:
James Naughtie: From the start of the next school year in England, head teachers will find it easier to remove teachers that are considered to be under-performers. The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, thinks the process is too cumbersome so it is being streamlined. The National Union of Teachers, as we heard earlier, says it could become a bullies’ charter. Well Mr Gove is with us. Good morning.
Michael Gove: Good morning.
JN: Bullies?
MG: I don’t believe so. I think that actually if you have got a problem with bullying or indiscipline it is often as a result of an individual teacher not being able to maintain effective discipline in the classroom or in the playground. So if we believe in playing fair by our children, then we’ll want to ensure that those teachers who aren’t doing an effective job are first of all given the support to change their ways and to improve and to get back on track, and then if that doesn’t work and only if it doesn’t work, then ease them out.
JN: There are two questions here, one, what do you think is wrong with the present system but the second question which is related, is how big a problem inadequate or bad teaching in the classroom is, how many teachers do you think in England are in this category roughly speaking, I don’t mean give us an exact number?
MG: I’ll give you the classic politicians no-no answer which is I don’t know – I dinnae ken.
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