Incompetence = what exactly?
In The News Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
Apologies for the silence here at EducationState but editors have moved on to pastures new and increasingly demanding schedules have scuppered any plans for regular posting. We, however, have been keeping an eye on so-called reforms. One such innovation has been the recent attempt to disqualify a teacher because of ‘gross incompetence’.
Incompetence is defined in the article as being unable to manage pupil behaviour or plan lessons. We wish to challenge why, firstly, this is the fault of the teacher or whether these, secondly, actually are what incompetence equates to. Taking the first point, why is a teacher at fault for the behaviour of pupils? Surely parents are responsible for that. As for the second issue, the notion of competence in teaching is simply one of interpretation. That is, plans were not so obsessively required in years gone by and we now live in the most prosperous age in modern history.
It seems to us that this is purely and simple another attempt to blame teachers for the ills of society and use bureaucratic instruments to remove them. If this is the road Government wishes to go down then it will be no surprise when there is an even more acute teacher shortage than there is now!