James Forsyth James Forsyth

Gove strikes to ease the removal of bad teachers

The quality of teaching in schools is one of the main determinants of how well a child does. But, shockingly, in almost half the local authorities in England a teacher hasn’t been sacked for being incompetent in the last five years. Retaining sub-standard teachers has harmed the life chances of goodness knows how many children.

So the news that Michael Gove is now consulting on rules that will make it far easier to fire bad teachers is welcome. The Gove proposals give heads much more control and enable them to get rid of a poor teacher in a term; at the moment it takes at least a year and is a bureaucratic minefield which is why so many schools shy away from taking action against those who aren’t up to the job.

These new rules should be in place for the beginning of the next academic year. But, predictably, some of the teachings unions are threatening to campaign against these changes.

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