Constructive Dismissal in Education: a guide
EdReform, In The News, Ofsted, Research Thursday, May 13th, 2010
It has come to our attention that the outdated and counterproductive managerialism found in schools shows no sign of crawling back under the rock that it came from.
This dogmatic and wholly unedifying way to treat fellow human beings is at the heart of the peculiarly sickening manner in which ‘efficiencies’ are made in education. Doing it the education way has a particular nastiness of its own, of course, so here is our guide:
1. Managers asked to reduce costs by ministers.
2. Remember from business management training that wage costs are the largest single drain on funds.
3. Look for obvious targets to get rid of e.g. older teachers with pension entitlements.
4. Bring in OfSted inspectors to do the initial dirty work and legitimise the whole enterprise.
5. Rate school, college etc’ as ‘underperforming’ (based on the current fashion in classrooms but without any rigorous scientifically foundation).
5. The predictable ‘bad’ inspection results then lead to ‘special measures’ and inspectors brought in again to observe teachers once more.
6. Surprise, surprise! Older, more expensive teachers are told they are out of a job unless their grades improve.
7. Teachers with decades of experience and local knowledge decide either to a) tell management and inspector to “f*&K off” and then quit b) take sick leave due to stress or c) play ball but sour the staff room atmosphere permanently.
8. Other good teachers decide that the school is not a good place to work and jump ship.
9. School is left with disgruntled, older and/or younger, inexperienced staff.
10. Union action follows under the pretext of protecting teacher jobs but really to drum up support, raise subscriptions and fight the Left’s corner once more.
11. Meanwhile, pupils and students lose experience, qualified and content staff and suffer lost classroom time due to strikes.
11. Management happy because they have reduced costs. Hooray!
