Institute of Education supports Conservative teaching policy

Tue 19 Jan 2010

The Institute of Education at the University of London has backed Tory plans to raise the standard of teaching in the UK.

Conservative Party leader David Cameron this week said he wanted to emulate countries such as Finland, Singapore and South Korea by making Britain's teaching sector "brazenly elitist".

Dylan Wiliam, professor of educational assessment at the Institute of Education, stated that he is very much in favour of the idea, as he wants teaching to be a more attractive profession to Britain's top graduates.

He credited countries such as Finland with being very good at attracting the brightest people into the profession.

However, he noted that while teaching had once been seen as a soft job option in the UK, this is no longer the case today, as it is very intellectually demanding and challenging.

Professor Wiliam said he wants to see applicants who are really keen and view teaching as a challenge rather than an easy job.

Stephen Hart, a solicitor in Winckworth Sherwood's Education Law team, commented: "Headteachers already have the means to raise standards in their teaching staff: well-crafted capability procedures, consistently and robustly applied, should enable headteachers to set higher standards and reasonable timescales for improvement."

Mr Hart, who is also the clerk to the governors of a leading voluntary-aided secondary school in London, added: "Ultimately, headteachers and governors should not shrink from dismissing poor performers."