Call for radical reforms to develop outstanding teachers

MPs said today that recruiting and developing outstanding teachers should be a top Government priority as they can transform the life chances of their pupils and the wealth of the nation.

The Education Select Committee has warned that Britain risks being left behind by international competitors if it does not speed up improvements in the quality of teaching in the country’s schools. Its report says great teachers make “an enormous difference” – accelerating pupils’ learning, improving grades and raising the lifetime earning potential of their students.

Research shows that only a year’s exposure to a high-performing teacher has a lasting impact on pupils, building confidence, earnings and well-being later in life, MPs have claimed.

The committee’s chairman, and Beverley and Holderness Conservative MP, Graham Stuart said: “There’s a huge difference in how much children learn depending on who is taking their class.

“This differential effectiveness between teachers is profound and there is an overwhelming need to increase the number of more effective teachers and, likewise, to reduce the number with whom children learn at a slow rate. “Clearly, the recruitment of teachers with the capacity to accelerate learning is even more important than previously understood.”

The committee warns that ongoing professional development for teachers has been neglected for “far too long”.

It recommends a new College of Teaching and an entitlement to professional development for all teaching staff.

MPs also propose radical reforms to existing career structures for teachers with a new National Teacher Sabbatical Scholarship programme where outstanding teachers carry out research or employment in a related field to improve their practice. Mr Stuart said: “Raising teacher quality isn’t just a technical challenge in education, it’s critical to our future competitiveness and our ability to prepare young people for progression in education and employment.”

The committee’s report concludes a long inquiry looking at recruitment, training and retention of the best teachers.

This set out to understand better the qualities found in great teachers, and to examine how such people might be attracted more readily to the profession, trained as well as possible, and motivated to remain in the sector.

This included a visit by MPs to York, in March, where members of the cross-party committee met university staff, teacher training students and head teachers and also held a formal evidence session at the city’s Guildhall and a question and answer session for members of the public.

Mr Stuart said the current generation of teachers is the country’s best ever but warned that the UK needed to speed up improvements in teaching quality and the systems which support it to avoid being left behind by other nations which are driving up standards at a faster rate.

He added: “It’s crucial that we have an educational system which celebrates great teachers, keeps more of them in the classroom, supports their development and gives them greater status and reward.”