UK teacher standards

I don’t think the teacher unions realise how easy they have it in NZ. The very modest policy of national standards they are trying to beat up into something big.

Compare that to this story from the Daily Mail:

Under-performing teachers will no longer be guaranteed a job for life in Coalition plans to overhaul the education system.

The Education Secretary has promised to make it easier to weed out weak teachers who see the career as an easy option, as he looks to restore the status of the profession.

And mediocre candidates will be prevented from even entering the classroom under Michael Gove’s radical reforms.

Mr Gove said applicants would no longer be funded by the Government to train as teachers unless their degrees were graded 2:2 or better. He also planned to introduce tests of ‘aptitude, personality and resilience’ to assess the suitability of applicants before they embarked on teaching courses.

Tests in the three Rs that all teacher trainees must pass will also be toughened up. They will be taken at the start, rather than the end, of their courses and trainees will not be allowed multiple resits. …

To ensure schools retain the best teachers, heads will be given powers to reward top-performing staff with higher salaries.

But the sweeping proposals provoked a furious response from teaching unions. The NASUWT said Mr Gove’s proposals amounted to a ‘vicious assault’ on teachers and a ‘disgraceful denigration’ of their performance.

Wouldn’t they make good policies for a second term?