Ministers urged to focus on quality of teaching

Ministers should focus more on improving the existing teaching workforce than on recruiting new teachers to the profession, research suggests today.

A study by the think-tank Reform says ministers should do away with regulations which prevent schools from improving the quality of teaching themselves.

It calls for workforce agreements to be scrapped, with heads given the right to set pay and conditions for staff, and reward those that perform well.

This would make them focus on a better workforce rather than a bigger one, improve performance and strengthen accountability of schools to parents, it says.

One result of this move would be a drop in the number of teaching assistants, the report says, claiming that research shows they have "a negligible effect on educational outcomes".

The study also claims that many schools ignore much official advice on improving teacher quality.

The definition of good teaching drawn up by the Training Development Agency for Schools (TDA) is ignored by many schools, the study claims, and the headteachers' qualification run by the National College is "weak".

It calls for the TDA to focus only on recruitment and initial training and Ofsted to focus on the quality of teaching.

The National College should be privatised with schools paying for the courses they want, it adds.

Dale Bassett, research director at Reform, said: "Ministers need to remove this bureaucracy if schools are to find the zeal for improving teaching that is so badly needed."

A Department for Education spokesman said: "The countries that provide the best education are those that value teachers most highly and attract the brightest and best into the profession.

"This is why the coalition Government is committed to raising the status of teaching in England and encouraging the best graduates into our schools.

"We have already announced plans to expand Teach First - a highly successful charity that recruits top graduates from the best universities to work in our most challenging schools.

"But we also absolutely recognise the vital importance of helping existing teachers develop professionally; our forthcoming Education White Paper - to be published later this year - will set out further details of our plans to improve both recruitment and professional development."

The Association of School and College Leaders said the report contained a number of deeply flawed assertions about the state of England's education service.

General secretary Brian Lightman said: "The report seems to pick and choose which research it uses, proposing causal links where they simply do not exist.

"To assert that smaller classes and support for individual students from teaching assistants do not help them to progress simply ignores the reality of the classroom. The statement that few English state schools make effective efforts to improve the quality of the teaching staff is completely unfounded.

"School leaders in England are at the forefront of good practice in professional development and are the envy of their colleagues in Europe. Lesson observation and performance management are far more advanced in this country.

"The National College is a world leader providing outstanding support for school leaders in England and there is no evidence that privatisation would do anything to maintain this quality.

"The abolition of national pay and conditions would lead to a free-for-all and the removal of a perfectly workable national framework which contains adequate flexibilities.

"Where ASCL does agree with the report is that the most successful school leaders take personal responsibility for leading and managing their schools creatively. The removal of bureaucratic burdens to which the Government is already committed will help them to do this even more effectively."