Gervase Phinn: Politicians have failed the test on education, but this is how they can get it right

I GUESS the first thing to happen when the next government gets in will be a change in the title of the education department. There seems to be a view held by those who manage learning at Whitehall that changing things will automatically improve them.

The Home Office and the Foreign Office and other departments have functioned with the same name for years but with education it is a very different matter. When I started teaching in 1970, there was the DES (Department of Education and Science) which grew to DfEE (Department for Education and Employment) then the DfES (Department for Education and Schools).

I guess there were other acronyms in the 40 or so years I have been involved in education but I forget since how many. Now we have the DfCSF (the Department for Children, Schools and Families) – known to teachers as the Department for Curtains and Soft Furnishings and to the more cynical in the profession as the Department for Comedy and Science Fiction.

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After so many years of trying to get education right, with politicians and pundits constantly harping on about the poor academic standards and disruptive pupils, why have things apparently not improved? Well here, for what they are worth, are my suggestions for the new Secretary of State:

1Let teachers teach and stop bombarding them with ridiculous amounts of paperwork: directives, guidelines, policy documents, development plans, statements of intent, risk assessments and expensive strategies. Many teachers feel overworked and undervalued and nearly a seventh of those who enter teaching as a profession leave in the first five years, driven out by the amount of bureaucracy.

Here is a teacher writing about why the job can be so dispiriting:

"Sometimes the weight of living in this atmosphere of responsibility, work and weariness seems almost more than I can bear. I feel like a bird in a cage, beating against the bars, longing to be free but baffled everywhere… I dream of breaking through the monotony and the grind of the teacher's life, the treadmill of constant preparation and ceaseless evaluation which are so apt to dry up and narrow mind and spirit."

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This was written by Edward Thring, headmaster of Uppingham School more than a century ago. One thing that does need to change in education is "the constant preparation and ceaseless evaluation".

2Celebrate the teaching profession and give those who work with young people some credit for that they do. Teachers, just as much as their pupils, need support and thrive on recognition. Moira Stewart put her finger on it at the Teaching Awards when she said that "teaching is not considered as the brilliant open sesame of childhood that it used to be". Motivated, enthusiastic, committed, hard-working and strong-minded teachers make the difference in children's lives – not paper and

process.

3Scrap the league tables. They tell you very little about the quality of education in a school. Darryl Wideman, headmaster of Silcoates School, said in the Yorkshire Post that "league tables don't actually tell you much about a school except how good the exam results are. The children in the 'Premiership' may achieve higher grades but they do so because these schools are more selective. If you admit more

academically able pupils at the age of 11 then, of course, they are going to get better grades at GCSE – it's a 'no brainer'."

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4Scrap the standard assessment tests (Sats) which have been proven to have a deleterious effect on teaching and learning. Replace them with a system of teacher assessment with external moderation, a process which works well in the Scandinavian countries which are recognised as having the most successful education systems in Europe.

5Invest more resources in early years and special education and give greater support for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children. It is a sad statistic that 70,000 children are in care and many more waiting to be placed with foster families. Nearly 30,000 children live in children's homes, the cost of which is 15,000 to 20,000 for each child per year.

6Allow headteachers and governors, in consultation with staff and the local authority, to have a greater level of autonomy in devising their own curricula based on a National Curriculum. Allow teachers to enjoy a greater degree of independence and be involved to a much greater extent in decision-making.

7Enhance the work of HM Inspectorate of Education and, as it was in the past, make the school inspection system more supportive and less threatening. Replace school improvement officers and Ofsted inspectors with education advisers who will work alongside teachers, demonstrate good practice and offer a comprehensive programme on training.

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8Make parents more accountable for their children's behaviour in school. Children are surrounded by the formal and the informal fabric of the home. Some children are fortunate to come from homes where there is acceptable behaviour, family friends, positive attitudes to others, with parents who don't swear in front of them, slap them and tell them they will never achieve anything in life. Others do not.

9Listen more to those successful managers and leaders who work at the chalk face. My children were fortunate to attend Hayfield Comprehensive School in Doncaster.

The headteacher, Tony Storey, set the standard by which other

headteachers should be judged. He created an atmosphere where pupils and teachers bloomed; he provoked thought, welcomed change but not for the sake of it, revelled in the achievements of others, had a clearly thought out philosophy and paid attention to details. The school was cheerful and welcoming and there was no litter, no graffiti. He

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believed that all children mattered and wanted every one to leave the school with courage, a sense of humour, conviction, energy and lively enquiring minds. The voices of head teachers like Mr Storey need to be heard and their advice acted upon.

In The Theory and Practice of Teaching, written in 1869, Edward Thring stressed again and again the central importance of the teacher.

"The teacher makes the taught do the work and occupies himself in showing them how to do it, and taking care that they do it. His work is to suggest, question, inspirit; and he adapts himself in every possible way to the individual minds, never resting until he had made them master of the skill required and seen them become capable of working on their own account. Teaching takes any shape whatsoever, is fragmentary, changing as the difficulties of pupils' minds change and disregards all precise plan, provided that a close, laborious and exact exercise of mind is the result. The teacher makes the pupils work and stands and falls by what they do."

n See today's Magazine for Gervase Phinn's weekly column.

Gervase Phinn will be appearing on stage later this month in Rochdale with Rory Bremner as part of the Election Battlebus Tour.