Response to McCrone

General Observations

What parents want above all are well-qualified, enthusiastic teachers who are focused on the job in hand and offer inspiration to pupils. They also want consistency and continuity: i.e. as far as is possible, they want the same teacher taking the class for the whole year. They do not want teachers to be constantly called away from the classroom for other tasks, for development work, for training or because they are moving to other jobs mid-year. Parents recognise that a necessary corollary to this is that teachers themselves need to be content in their work - i.e. they must be adequately paid and have good working conditions. However, the present arrangements do not meet either parents' or teachers' aspirations and below we list a number of issues which need to be addressed.

Age of the teaching force

Teaching can be undertaken successfully by people of all ages and age alone does not determine effectiveness. The fact that the current teaching force is mainly in the top end of the working age-range is not necessarily detrimental to youngsters' learning, particularly not if, in part, this is due to people coming into teaching when they are older. People who have worked in other areas before teaching bring with them a wealth of experience and often have increased credibility. Moreover, they have usually made a positive choice to move into teaching - rather than just drifting into the profession because they cannot think of anything else to do - and so tend to be very enthusiastic.

 However, the main reason for the age profile of the profession is the steady decline in the number of pupils. The number in each age cohort has fallen by about a third from a figure in excess of 90,000 in the early eighties to about 60,000 now. This has resulted in an overall reduction in the size of the teaching force with a consequential major impact on the number of new entrants. Moreover, pupil numbers are set to continue their downward trend and, if the present pupil-teacher ratios are retained, the number of teachers required will also decline.

 Advancing years may not be detrimental to teaching, but young teachers are also needed for their energy, for their willingness to innovate, for their forward looking approach and because pupils relate well to teachers whose proximity in age makes them seem less distant and more approachable. Schools need a mixture of experience and youth. Therefore, anecdotal evidence that schools are having to call on retired teachers, in their sixties and seventies, for supply and the findings in the recent Edinburgh survey that 77% of teachers are aged over 40 indicate that the age-profile situation is getting serious. Unless urgent action is taken now, a large proportion of school staff will retire in the next twenty years. Moreover, the prospect of getting sufficient new recruits of adequate quality does not look good on the present basis and teaching must be made to seem an attractive prospect both to new graduates and to people who decide to make a career move.

Image of teaching

In general there is evidence to suggest that teaching is not a generally attractive career to able graduates of both genders. University lecturers report that students' attitudes towards teaching as a career have changed considerably for the worse in recent years. In some subjects there is anecdotal evidence that only the weakest students go into teaching and there is also evidence to suggest that many graduates who start teaching quickly give up. In part this is due to the fact that there are more opportunities - teaching has to compete with other exciting growth areas, particularly in the high-tech industries. However, the constant public criticism of teachers by HMI, Government and the media is also a contributory factor, whilst many young graduates have very clear memories of the difficulties staff in schools have with teenage youngsters. There does seem to be more enthusiasm to teach in primary schools, suggesting younger children are not so off-putting.

Subject Shortages

Scotland has not as yet experienced major subject shortages as in England and Wales, but that in part is due to the nature of the Scottish degree. Until recently, teachers were required to have studied a subject for two years at University before they could teach it. The Scottish degree system of first and second Ordinary courses and outside subjects means that many Scottish educated teachers are qualified to teach more than one subject - for example the Physics graduate who is also able to teach Chemistry. In contrast, the specialised nature of the English degree means that many English educated teachers do not have this level of flexibility.

However, the recent change, which requires that teachers study a subject for three years at University level before they teach it, will stop students being qualified to teach in their outside subjects. It is already beginning to have an impact and has resulted in an acute shortage of candidates qualified to teach computer studies this year. In subsequent years, it is likely to result in shortages in other areas. A study of the number of teachers with Honours degrees who are covering subjects other than the one they graduated in would indicate the potential size of the problem.

Moreover, even at present, although there are no absolute subject shortages, there are both geographic and subject areas where provision is inadequate and, throughout the past year, there have been recurring and worrying reports about a serious shortage of supply teachers (see our comments under "age of the teaching force").

Gender imbalance

It would seem that teaching, as a profession, is no longer attractive to men. It has long been the case that teachers in the primary sector are predominantly female. Now women teachers outnumber men in secondary schools also whilst, at the level of unpromoted teacher (which includes the most recent recruits), 63.6% are women. This trend is very worrying. It is vital that children are taught by both men and women so that they can see that education is important to and for both genders - it's not just a "girl thing". It is worth considering whether the under-performance by boys has something to do with female dominance in education at school level.

So, to meet parents' overall requirements, the teaching profession must be made sufficiently attractive in terms of pay and conditions to attract both men and women graduates - and those making a career move - and to compete with alternative opportunities for employment.

Changes at the expense of children

Parents are very concerned that any settlement does not undermine the provision of education to children solely to suit the needs of management and the Treasury. We are mindful of the fact that the last big review of teachers' pay and conditions - the Main Enquiry - removed ten days from the pupil year. Five of these became holiday for everyone and five were holiday for pupils but used as in-service time for teachers. Moreover these ten days were lost from the most valuable teaching time as the number of beginnings and ends of terms with their inevitable disruptions were not reduced.

In many respects this solution was reached because of a refusal at the time to meet fully the teachers' pay demand. It is noteworthy that now there is a considerable push to increase the time available to pupils through homework clubs and study sessions in school holidays. The two weeks lost to all pupils could well have provided the much-needed extra time for all pupils.

Professional issues

Entry into the profession and probation

Entry into the profession and probation are the points at which there should be a rigorous evaluation of competence.

• We support the current requirement that all teachers should be graduates but the impact of the recent change, which requires teachers to have studied a subject for three years at University level, rather than for two, should be reviewed.
• The probationary period should be seen as integral to the training process. Probationers should be offered a clear package of support from senior staff in the school and from the college.
• Probation should be more meaningful and the transition to full teacher status should involve a more rigorous check on suitability. A probationer should have been working for at least a term in the school before the headteacher can be required to assess their suitability.

Teacher training

Given the need for teachers to communicate with parents, we feel this should be an integral part of all teacher-training courses.

Supply Cover

The present system of supply does not work well from the pupil's point of view. Too often the supply teacher is not really able to do much more than take the pupils through work which has been set by the regular teacher to fill the time rather than because it is the most appropriate work. Continuity in the classroom is very important and schools should be staffed at a level that incorporates a proper supply element within the staffing establishment. Although schools are required to cover themselves for short-term absence, we actually propose that a more generous supply element should be included in staffing quotas. This, like our proposals on professional development (see below), could be achieved by cutting the class contact time and giving every teacher an increased flexibility element within the teaching week.

Continuing Professional Development

We recognise that teachers need to review and revise their teaching skills and, at secondary level, their subject knowledge. They also need to keep abreast of curriculum developments such as Higher Still and be aware of the latest thinking in educational theory and practice, particularly those arising from improved understanding of the learning process. However, this proper and professional need must be placed alongside the basic requirement for continuity in the classroom. There is a need to provide adequate time for both the continuing professional development of teachers and for reviving their enthusiasm without disrupting the teaching process. This could be done by looking at a system of sabbatical terms, school exchanges, or by cutting contact hours so that it became an integrated part of the teacher's work.

It is good practice for parents to have information about what ongoing professional development teachers' at their child/ren's school are undertaking, particularly if children have a day's holiday whilst it is taking place.

Disciplinary procedures

As parents we want all teachers to be good teachers and for any problems to be resolved quickly. We recognise that sometimes a poor teacher simply needs more support and hope that a number of strategies including team teaching and further training will be used. But, where necessary, there should be a smooth system for removing poor teachers from the classroom. Any action must be taken speedily and children should not be left for a whole year with an inadequate teacher. We do recognise that determining "poor" is very difficult. We feel this should be a matter for professional judgement and that consistent standards should be applied throughout Scotland.

Workload

We recognise that recent changes in education have all resulted in increased workload for teachers.

• The fact that classes are no longer simply taught as a whole, means that teachers have to prepare more individual work for different pupils or groups.
• In the primary school the curriculum has become extremely wide and teachers are now expected to fit all this in within the same amount of time and still reach the same high standards.
• The increased focus on formal assessment and the use of statistics for comparative measures means teachers have to mark and record assessment processes more.
• The increased post-16 staying-on rates means that senior classes, with their massive marking workloads, are much larger. It is common to have English Higher classes of 30 pupils and even Sixth Year Studies classes of 25. The marking involved with such groups when pupils are expected to write 2000-word essays is very considerable.

In assessing an individual teacher's workload, class contact hours is too crude a measure. A formula should be devised which also takes account of the level, volume of work, number of pupils and number of SEN pupils in the class with the caveat that the difference in class sizes for practical and non-practical classes should be discounted. Without such an approach, it is not possible for teachers to give pupils the attention they need.

Time for relevant parent contact

As parents, a major concern is the inadequacy of the current provision for parent teacher contact. Both sides seem confused as to its real purpose and yet there is a general feeling such face to face communication is important and necessary. It would be helpful if a national consultation were undertaken with parents to find out what they expected from such meetings.

In the primary school, where the class teacher has an all-round perspective of the pupils, the system of parent-teacher evenings twice a year works reasonably well and, in the event of a problem, parents have a clearer understanding of whom to approach. However, more time should be provided.

In contrast, in the secondary school, where there are different subject teachers and parents have to spend parents' nights rushing around assembling a view of the child's work, the situation is a nightmare for all concerned. Moreover, because of the needs of the different year groups, these meetings sometimes do not take place until the summer term by which stage it is too late to address any problems. The whole process needs reviewed. One option could be to develop the guidance system further so that each teacher in the school was mentor to and had responsibility for a small group of pupils. That teacher would be the first point of contact for parents. He/she would discuss all aspects of the child's work and parents would only meet with specific subject teachers if there were a particular need. This process would have the added advantage of meaning that at least one person in the school had an all round picture of each child and could judge his/her strengths and weaknesses.

In both the primary and secondary schools a system of regular surgeries when parents could come and discuss minor concerns as and when they arose, would also help.

Flexibility

For pupils, good schooling is more than the core of lessons. It includes homework clubs, extra-curricular activities like sports and activity clubs, trips whether for outdoor education, extra-curricular activities, field trips or foreign visits. It is important to stress that at present such activities do take place and many schools have very active programmes. However, they depend on the good will of staff and their willingness to undertake such work for no extra pay. These activities require flexibility and it is worth putting the whole process on a slightly more formal basis. Perhaps there should be a time-allocation for undertaking extra-curricular activities. But, participation cannot be imposed.

Many teachers go through spells, often due to family commitments, when they are able to undertake their core commitments but not contribute to the extra-curricular activities. It is important to recognise, for example, that some women go into teaching because it fits in well with being a parent. However, they can still be good teachers and do their work properly as they work at home in the evening. The restrictions imposed by parental responsibilities last only for a few years. Flexibility should mean that their requirements should/could be accommodated. Schools need such teachers as they often have a very good understanding of children.

 

Management

Management structures are important both in providing leadership within schools and career opportunities for teachers. In recent years the management structures have become over-complex and we argued, in our submission to the millennium review in February 1998, that the structure of promoted staff should be revised. Once again it is important to point out that the Main Enquiry generated much of this complexity by creating new posts and partly as a way of avoiding making the overall increase in pay which teachers deserved. Similar mistakes should be avoided this time.

We have followed with considerable attention the recent discussion between the management and teacher sides over promoted posts. We note that both sides support a simplified structure with three levels - senior management, professional grade and ordinary teacher. We support this.

Both sides seemed to support the current structure of the senior management team. It is not clear to us that the SMT needs to be quite as large as it is and we feel that one of the tasks of the present enquiry should be to investigate this.

However, on the position of the professional grade, there was considerable disagreement between the management and teacher sides. The teachers' position was quite clear. The professional grade would replace the principal teacher in the secondary school and would be a new post in primary schools.

The management's proposals were more complex. Although the professional grade was seen as a personal promotion, they proposed that the number of such posts in secondary schools should be half the current number of principal teachers. They also saw the creation of new professional posts in primary schools. However, under the management's proposals, the ratio of promoted posts to ordinary teachers would have actually been higher in the primary than in the secondary sector.

Secondary schools

We agree that the complicated promoted structures in the secondary school should be slimmed down but we also agree with teachers and headteachers that there needs to be someone with subject responsibility to take charge of curriculum changes and development. However, we recognise that it is in no one's interests to reach a situation where a subject cannot be taught unless there is a principal teacher or equivalent. Subject departments vary enormously in size, with English and Maths the largest, and the promoted structure needs to take account of this. It would be more sensible to use pupil contact hours rather than class contact hours as a formula for determining the number of promoted positions within a department, and to look at a system of linking small departments together with related subjects in faculties.

Primary schools

We recognise the need to have a proper promoted structure in primary schools. However, it is important to recognise that primary teachers have a much better chance of becoming headteachers than do secondary teachers. According to the most recent Annual Review of Scottish Education Statistics, there were 22,187 primary teachers in 2,300 schools as against 23,875 secondary teachers in 401 schools. This means that, in the primary sector, the chance of being a headteacher is just under 1 in 10 as against just under 1 in 60 in the secondary sector. We accept that, overall, there are currently more opportunities for promotion in the secondary school but, from the parents' perspective, running a secondary school would seem more complex because of the different subjects, the time-tabling requirements, the burdens imposed by external exams and the guidance needs of pupils as they move on to the next stage. The management structures should take account of these complexities.

Pay

Pay should be raised to a level necessary to reward teachers for their work and to attract the very best candidates into the profession. In this, it is important to take account of the issues of age and gender which we raised at the beginning of our submission and to recognise the competing claims of other professions, particularly in some subject areas.

However, we do not think that there should be differential pay levels for different subjects. The current uniform pay structure is important in avoiding jealousies between teachers of different subjects and in enabling school staff to work together as a team. The reasons for pay differences should be clearly understood and relate to seniority, workload and responsibility. However, the concept of "responsibility" is open to review. At present a school has a "responsibility" element attached to it and no account is taken of the actual responsibility different principal teachers may have within that school in terms of size of department. We suggest that such considerations should be built into the calculation of responsibility.

Following from the above we do not support the idea of performance related pay either for individuals or schools because it would not be possible to develop objective and universally accepted criteria for determining "good" performance. Quite clearly it would be invidious to use examination results and, as promotion brings with it a pay increase, then anyone who merits promotion will automatically get an increase in pay. However, we do think the committee should consider the possibility of enhanced payment for adverse conditions, whether that is due to remoteness or disadvantage.

We also think some consideration should be given to paying teachers for extra work. Although many teachers see it as important that extra curricula activities are done on a voluntary basis, we think that teachers who run summer schools should be paid. This in turn might increase the number of summer schools on offer, to the benefit of youngsters. At present, apart from the catch-up/revision classes, specialist music courses are often run in the holidays. With proper funding it would be possible to extend this to offer, for example, language immersion courses or specialised computer courses. Paying the staff would be important.

Forum for setting pay

Different groups have different mechanisms for determining pay. In the private sector pay is determined by considerations of the market, including productivity levels and competition. However, pay levels within public sector services, which include education, are determined by Government policy. There is very little scope for variation. If the Government decides, as a question of policy, to restrict public sector pay then that is what happens. In such circumstances, the negotiating machinery is irrelevant, any negotiations on pay have a limited impact and the most meaningful discussion concerns conditions. It is significant that in the settlement at the time of the Main Enquiry, improved conditions in terms of increased holidays were offered as compensation for a reduced pay award.

In recent years, Governments have offered the concept of "self-financing" pay awards. This often means cutting staff and essentially using the salaries thereby saved to pay more to those who stay. It can also mean cutting the number of promoted posts in order to increase the basic pay of teachers - a reverse of the outcome of the Main Enquiry. Sometimes, the trade-off can be that staff undertake some policy development for the Government. The trouble with trade-offs like this is that they tend to be one-off affairs and, after that, public sector workers are trapped by the Government's overall pay policy. In the circumstances, it is not surprising that teachers have been reluctant, in recent years, to trade conditions for increased pay for they recognise that, whereas the favourable conditions are lost for ever, the enhanced pay will quickly start to fall back.

In recent years, Government wage restraint has only been broken when shortages or discontent have reached such a level that a pay review body has had to be set up. However, the only permanent way out of this cycle of non-agreement is to make pay increases more independent of Government policy. There is a precedent in this as firemen's pay rises are determined by a formula which is linked to average pay increases. With some more long lasting guarantees on pay, teachers would be more willing to agree to changes in their conditions, particularly when those conditions are seen as being different and not worse.

However, if the fundamental condition, with which we started this submission, is to be met, then it is important that teachers play an active part in any negotiations and agree any changes. Our experience of individual teachers is that in general they are professional, reasonable and have the best interests of their pupils at heart. Moreover, it is clear from their submission to the recent failed pay negotiations that teachers are not against change and recognise that the whole promoted structure needs to be simplified. However, they do want their professionalism respected and they do want change introduced in a planned and orderly way. A proper assessment should be made of the cost and time requirements of any new initiative. We are convinced that, given good will and proper negotiation on both sides, it should be possible to reach an agreement on pay and conditions, which is acceptable to all sides.

 February 2000

01 Feb 2000