Incompetent Teachers Give Fright to Parents
Maths educational lessons at school teach children that their lives will be heavily influenced by the laws of averages. They have application in virtually all aspects of our lives. So why has it come as a shock when these laws reveal the number of incompetent teachers operating in our schools?
There are around 450,000 FTE (full time equivalent) teachers in our schools. The law of averages would indicate 10 per cent of the teachers will operate at the top end with an excellent rating, and likewise 10 per cent will struggle at the bottom where they could rate as incompetent. This means just as 45,000 teachers would be excellent an equivalent number could also be classified as incompetent. If you sugar the pill and reduce the percentages to a low 5 per cent of the total, means your child could be taught by one of 22,500 duff teachers. One real shock is that we are shocked by the number. If so, maybe even we were not taught maths and averages effectively at school.
Perhaps the greatest issue is the sudden onset in concern. Where have we been? Head teachers who can be rated excellent, very good, good, average and incompetent have lived alongside the situation for years. With around 33,000 schools in the UK, we could also have around 1,650 incompetent heads. In turn school governors and local of educational authorities could be equally shocked that they have failed to deal with the problem.
A number of Head teachers have their hands tied. In many circumstances removing a poor teacher is fraught with time consuming rules, regulations and red tape. The removal process becomes an assault course attempted only by the fittest and the brave. Removing the miscreant can be impossible. As a sweetener many head teachers have been enticed to provide over rated references. But this backfires as the poor teachers are subsequently recycled rather than being removed from the system. Budget constraints also prevent the payroll increase needed to attract the “excellent” replacement. The continued employment of the incompetent teacher is the line of least resistance, and only a handful have been fired in the last five years.
The teacher transfer season is scheduled for the end of the academic year. This would be a great point to take the bull by the horns and flush out the poor performers. If we do nothing then the 22,500 poor teachers will continue. Taking a nominal six classes a week each with 30 children, nationally this means 4,050,000 children in school will suffer the consequences. If we do nothing more children will struggle to appreciate the law of averages and what a good maths education really means. Doesn’t bear thinking about, and may be a resounding reason why our academic performance is slipping down the international schooling stakes.
