Blog posts for tags:michael gove, teachers

Labour came out swinging early in the new year with a press release on teacher recruitment, pointing to what they see as “the Government’s failure on this extremely basic issue.” Shadow Education Secretary Lucy Powell seems to be stepping up the rhetoric at a time when the government seems determined that there is no crisis. Schools Minister Nick Gibb said in December that “the profession is in very good shape” and accused those who use the word ‘crisis’ of “talking down the profession.” This is the latest in a long running battle of words on the issue. The government seems determined that there is no crisis, and claims that “the number and quality of teachers in our classrooms is at an all-time high”. Labour points out that the government has changed the way it presents figures in the initial teacher training census, taking out figures from undergraduates and adding those who come through Teach First. This makes it difficult to compare against data from previous years, and to understand whether enough teachers are being recruited.

The teacher recruitment crisis in schools has featured prominently in education headlines recently, but another study has revealed that 85% of Further Education (FE) employees have considered quitting their job due to an unmanageable workload. The study, carried out by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), revealed that schoolteachers aren’t the only educators to feel heavy pressure, but that this extends to their FE colleagues. The survey was carried out by ATL as part of its ‘It’s About Time’ campaign, dedicated to helping educators finding a work-life balance.

New research has shown that teachers work more unpaid overtime, and suffer more workload-based stress than any other profession. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) found that in secondary schools, 57.5% of teaching staff worked unpaid overtime, averaging 12.5 hours per week. The figures are similar for primary school teachers, as 61.4% worked overtime for an average of 12.9 hours a week.

Michael Gove has proposed an increase in working hours for teachers, suggesting that limits of 1,265 hours a year should be scrapped. The department has made a submission to the School Teachers’ Review Body, which it must consult before changing pay and conditions. The reaction from the union has been one of outrage, suggesting that the Education Secretary is destroying teaching as an “attractive profession” and “adding fuel to the fire of anger that already exists among teachers.”

GCSEs in England are set to be overhauled, with exams graded from 8 to 1 rather than A* to G. It is proposed that the new-style exams will be brought in from 2015 and will spell the end of continuous assessment with a move towards final exams. Students will face more rigorous content and the format will be similar to O-Levels. The reforms will initially apply to a group of 9 core subjects.

Education Secretary, Michael Gove, received an angry reception when he appeared before head teachers in Birmingham at the National Association of Head Teachers’ conference. The union passed a no confidence motion in his policies, while President Bernadette Hunter said that teachers and pupils have "never had it so bad" and that teaching staff live in a culture of “bullying.”

A recent survey conducted by qualifications regulator Ofqual suggests that many teachers, heads and parents lack confidence in GCSE grades. The research (carried out by 4,686 people) showed that four out of five head teachers and two-thirds of teachers have had their confidence knocked by the grading controversy of last year. Ofqual would like to see faith in GCSEs restored, but what’s the answer and how can these concerns be addressed? Michael Gove suggests that the survey highlights the need for fundamental reform. A Department for Education spokesperson stated, "New GCSEs will be introduced from 2015 - they will be more rigorous, with deeper subject content and will match the best equivalent exams in the world.”

Teachers have warned that the switch to final exams, rather than a series of smaller units could see girls’ results fall. Data shows that girls have been outperforming boys in GCSEs at grades A*-C for more than 20 years, as GCSEs have been heavily based around coursework projects and extended essays. However, The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) suggests that girls often lack the confidence to perform well under the pressure of a ‘high stakes’ final exam system. The Department for Education denies that there are gender differences in how pupils perform in different exam structures.

You will have seen in recent weeks the usual media coverage of challenges facing the education sector in the UK; Michael Gove’s numerous announcements, comments regarding the merit of some of the qualifications on offer and changes to the funding system.   The most recent of these was the Education Funding Agency’s 16-19 Funding Formula Review published earlier this month.  The review outlines how the Department for Education and the Education Funding Agency (EFA) plans to fund 16-19 year old students from September 2013, with all full time programmes to be funded at a single funding rate per student, per year.   

According to reports yesterday, Education Secretary Michael Gove is preparing to scrap GCSEs from Autumn 2014, in favour of ‘tougher’ O-level style exams in English, Maths and Science. Less academic pupils would sit a ‘more straightforward’ exam, like the old CSE. Mr Gove said action is needed to tackle ‘competitive dumbing down’ and restore rigour to the system, allowing England to keep pace with educational improvements in other countries.The ideas, which are going to be put out for consultation, would amount to the biggest change to the exams system for a generation if they were introduced. This is in addition to recent changes whereby many vocational qualifications will cease to hold GCSE equivalency from the end of the 2012-13 academic year, in line with Professor Wolf’s recommendations.It’s a time of much uncertainty for schools who are trying to digest the changes that emerged from the Wolf report as well as understand the implications of Gove’s newest proposals.According to Labour's education spokesman Kevin Brennan, Gove’s plans would take the exam system 'back to the 1950s,' dividing children into winners and losers at just 14. But we’d like to know what you think.Is the reform a backwards step, segregating the young people? Will the ‘more straightforward’ exams be seen as an inferior qualification for the less able? Surely, we want to avoid making a decision about a child’s capabilities too early in their career and risk demotivating them...Or alternatively, is the proposed 2 tier system a good step forward, allowing young people to focus on their individual skills and talents? Is the current exam system letting children down? After all, there’s no doubt that some young people will be more engaged by technical / vocational study with others better suited to the academic route…