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Teachers' £10,000 'golden handcuffs'
13.01.09
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Unions reacted angrily to plans for £10,000 "golden handcuffs" for the best teachers who are prepared to work in the toughest secondary schools, denouncing them as "grossly unfair".
The proposal forms a key plank of the Government New Opportunities White Paper on boosting social mobility and improving the chances of people from disadvantaged backgrounds, launched by Gordon Brown.
The Government said the scheme would help raise standards in the worst performing schools and increase the chances of future success for the children who attend them.
However Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, warned that the scheme was likely to prove counterproductive.
"It will be grossly unfair to the teachers who already work in those schools, and risks damaging morale and creating divisions between staff. We have yet to see any evidence it will work," she said.
Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the Government should end the "punitive" accountability system - including the threat of special measures - if it wanted to attract teachers to the most difficult schools.
"Teachers need to be convinced that working in such schools enhances, not undermines, their careers," she said.
"The extra money being offered to take up posts in challenging schools will not do the job if the Government continues with its arbitrary targets that could well see the school closed or put into special measures."
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said that while the Government was right to acknowledge the particular problems faced by some schools, it should recognise the efforts of all the teachers prepared to work in them.
"A £10,000 golden handcuffs offer is no substitute for a package of sustained support and reward for all teachers in these schools, particularly those who have already given years of dedicated service and commitment," she said.
Reader views (6)
Thinhs have come a long way. People came from abroad to go to school here some years ago! No they need to take bodyguard with them.
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
Here we go again. What became of that scheme to give a grant to teachers willing to stay on an extra year at College and train to be Maths Teachers. The one chap I know who did do so, is now a Nurse at a London Teaching Hospital.
Is one to understand that Schools are deemed inadequate on account of Poor Quality Staff? There is of course the possibity that the best teachers avoid a failing school, but an extra ten thousand pounds will not tempt Staff to any such School if its ethos is of undisciplined violence, unsupportive parents, and an unwillingness to learn. Better by far to bring back selective education, if not on the basis of the brightest and the best, then on the basis of separating those willing to learn from those who have no wish so to do. When you have done that bring back the Technical Colleges and Junk all those non courses at soi disant Universities
- John B. Pope, Salisbury
Yes, isn't this the basic idea behind a bonus . . . ? Except everyone now takes their bonus forgranted without the need to stretch themselves to get it.
- Roz, Chamonix, France
Ive heard th saying throwing good money after bad, but throwing good money after bad schools??
- Paul, Manchester
"Ministers believe enhancing GCSE results for youngsters from poorer families ..."
Does that mean fiddling the figures by lowering standards then? If you do not simply educate people properly in the first place then it is all just a waste of time and effort.
12 years ago Nu Lag Loving Labour's mantra was 'Education, education, education', nothing happened.
Balls by name policies ...
- Frank, Home Counties, England
Ah yes more handouts. No! We need structural change in these hard-hit economic times. Mobility is only possible if bureaucracy and Nu Labor consultants get hit. Taxes need massive lowering and cutting. A lot of state people will have to go. The bolshevik Brown system has clearly failed. Education has become the UK worst situation I think has led to our loss of competitiveness and the depression.
- Georgie, Islington, London
