Apprehension of 'Incompetent Teachers' and 'Sub-standard Education' crept in even the British minds

          The recent tempest of “fake degrees” of some of Pakistani Legislators led me to think on the issue for our future generations. There is maxim in my language that where there a fruit’s plant, people pelt stone to that plant. The legislators got fake degrees from the sources which were already watering individuals with such like fake degrees, therefore, these legislators found no difficulty in getting such degrees at the eve of the General elections. The kidneys business was done by certain conscienceless doctors while this fake degrees business cannot be done without the assistance of those who are attached to the Universities or boards.

        My late mother who was illiterate, used to say that the majority of officers get posts after first, using copying, un-fair-means in the examinations and then use the recommendations of big ones in the Government for the reception of posts. She was absolutely right because the incompetence, corruption and delay of work in the Institutions are due to the incompetent persons.

        Those nations who know that the teacher has pivotal role in the transformation and distortion of the society consider themselves duty bound to ponder over issues of Education and knowledge.

        The removal of a few legislators, Government officers, doctors, engineers, professors etc is not the solution of the matter. The Parliament, Judiciary, Media and civil society should sit seriously to uproot the fountain heads of these evils. Today one party will loose the government and another party would come in government after cosmetic measures of some institutions but the matter is of life and death for the whole nation because the whole World is now witnessing the evils which we were till now hiding from the World.

        The Prime Minister cannot put the blame on the Judiciary for not deciding the cases of fake degrees in the past. The Judiciary accepted its shortcomings and that is why even fired their own Judges of the Supreme Court and of High Courts. The Prime Minister should act like the Chief Justice of Pakistan by firing own parliamentarians and putting them in jails for using fake degrees as genuine.

        The Government of every political party committed a great blunder in giving preference to every department like CSP officers, PCS officers, Police officers, Army officers, doctors, engineers etc but totally ignored the Education and Teachers who are primarily ‘Producer’ of these officers.

        It is not new matter even in the Education Department several teachers got benefits through forged degrees and when were detected, they were removed but no one paid attention to the fountain head that from where all these fake degrees are pouring in the hands of the persons?

        Actually everyone is in the mood of the using shortcut ways without using much time and toil. The instinct of greed got nourishment much better in the last two decades and every foul way was used by people to get highest place in the society. The percentage of those people is much less who got places without any foul play at any stage.

        About one and half decade ago I expressed my desire to be an officer in the future, the officer sitting in front of me said to me, “then what would be the result if your Minister in the Government were found to be a thumb-affixing one”. On the whole way back from Peshawar Secretariat, I was thinking on the words of the officer. I found no solution to problem of coming of illiterates to the assemblies.

        When General Musharraf introduced the Condition of B.A., I was much delighted because I had seen the time of illiterate Members and Minister was not happy with the situation. When a person was unable to get a degree of B.A. in his life then how he can be expected to know all the matters relating to the lives of the people.

        The greedy politicians in order to get the places in the Government got fake degrees. Those who were not greedy did not come to the front but silently adopted the new situations like gentlemen.

        Today if the law of the land was not used against the culprits in letter and spirit then it will create a chaos if the lower graded ones were punished under these laws.

        The Prime Minister should destroy the fountain heads of these fake degrees and do more for the Education and Teachers for achieving the promising results.

Manzoor Ahmad Yousafzai

Dated: Sunday, 04 July 2010

Incompetent teachers 'being recycled' by head teachers

Page last updated at 00:48 GMT, Sunday, 4 July 2010 01:48 UK

There are more than 500,000 registered teachers in the UK

Only 18 UK teachers have been struck off for incompetence in the past 40 years, the BBC's Panorama has learned.

This is despite ex-chief inspector of UK schools, Chris Woodhead, estimating some 15,000 are not up to the job.

Some bad teachers are moved between schools, rather than having their competency challenged, it has emerged.

Teaching unions dispute the claims. The General Teaching Council for England, which investigates complaints, says the number of poor teachers is "not clear".

However, the GTC admits the suggestion that the 18 struck off represented the total number of incompetent teachers in the system is not credible.

Two years ago, its chief executive Keith Bartley said there could be as many as 17,000 "substandard" teachers among the 500,000 registered teachers in the UK.

And Mr Woodhead sparked anger in the teaching profession with his estimate of 15,000.

Chris Woodhead was chief inspector of schools in the UK until 2000

But he told BBC Panorama that the figure represents less than 5% of teachers.

He said: "You tell me a profession where there aren't 5%, 10% of members who are incompetent?

"The strange thing about the public sector in general and teaching in particular is that no-one will admit that there is this problem."

Mr Woodhead described an incompetent teacher as someone who could not keep control in the classroom, had a lack of understanding of their subjects or might not even like their pupils.

Some believe part of the problem lies with head teachers' unwillingness to subject those suspected of incompetence to proper competence tests, referring those found wanting to the GTC.

Panorama has uncovered evidence they are being given good references in exchange for agreeing to look for work in alternative schools.

One of those teachers who was struck off, Denise McKillop, said she was told early in her case by her union that they could look at getting her such a deal.

"If that is being offered to me who else was it being offered to," Mrs McKillop said.

The competency process is tough but you have to go down it. There's a moral duty

Mick Brookes Leader, NAHT

Chris Keates, the general secretary of Mrs McKillop's union, the NASUWT, said it had acted appropriately.

"When a member gets into difficulties, we are required by law to tell that individual member the range of options that are available to them," she said.

"And it's for that member to choose which of those options to pursue."

Mick Brookes, the leader of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), believes recycling incompetent teachers is a common practice.

"I've been victim of it as a head teacher on a couple of occasions... receiving people into my school who really, quite frankly, weren't up to the job."

Mr Brookes thinks the practice is unacceptable and head teachers have to be stronger.

"The competency process is tough but you have to go down it. There's a moral duty," said Mr Brookes.

Parents have a right to be appalled when incompetent teachers are kept in work, he added.

One parent, Catherine Walker, moved her son Ryan to a different school to get away from an incompetent supply teacher.

Struck off teacher totals

·                                 England 13

·                                 Wales 3

·                                 Scotland 2

·                                 Northern Ireland 0

When she complained to her son's head teacher, she had been told the school was "stuck with her" and that she could only be removed if any disciplinary case arose.

Prof Simon Burgess, from Bristol University, has researched the impact of a bad teacher on pupil performance.

He said he was surprised by the gap between the results of children with teachers ranked in the top 5% on ability and those in the bottom 5%.

"If you took all these people out, stopped them from teaching the children and replaced them even with just average teachers, that would be something like half a grade per pupil," he said.

"That could be the difference between getting a job and not getting a job or going to university."

Schools 'break law' on teaching assistants, NUT claims

Page last updated at 08:53 GMT, Saturday, 3 July 2010 09:53 UK

Some teachers are comfortable leaving support staff in charge at times

Schools could be breaking the law by asking support staff to teach lessons when qualified teachers are absent, the National Union of Teachers has claimed.

Since September, teachers in England and Wales have only been expected to cover for colleagues on rare occasions.

But some schools are using classroom assistants to fill in, rather than more costly supply teachers, the union says.

Ministers say that if support staff deliver occasional lessons, they should be under a teacher's overall direction.

Assistants are allowed to supervise classes if they have the right level of qualifications.

But the NUT says they should not actively teach and, if they do so routinely, then schools could be breaking the law.

"What the regulations say is you can only do specified work, which is teaching, if you're under the supervision of a qualified teacher. What you can't do is take over on your own, plan lessons, run classes etc," said John Bangs, head of education at the NUT.

'Cheaper option'

He said the employment of supply teachers - qualified teachers employed to cover absent staff - had "gone through the floor" because "they [were] being replaced by cheaper cover supervisors and support staff".

Margaret Morrissey Campaign group Parents Outloud

Head teachers faced a "real temptation to employ cheaper, unqualified staff" in the current climate, but evidence showed putting support staff in inappropriate roles led to a drop in standards, he said.

Mick Brookes, who leads the head teachers' union NAHT, said their policy was to make sure the "appropriate person" was infront of the classroom.

"Mostly that's a teacher, but there are circumstances where somebody else would be perfectly fit and competent to be infront of a group of people, for instance a sports teacher, someone teaching music or a languages specialist," he said.

He said there were cases where teaching assistants could manage a class well.

Some teachers felt confident their assistants could supervise the class because they knew the children and subject work, whereas they would not know the qualities of any supply teacher they might be given, he said.

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The NUT's John Bangs: "This is not anti-support staff"

"My fear is that teaching assistants... will be first in line [for job cuts] and that will mean - as most of them provide support for children with special educational needs - a deterioration of that support."

Christina McAnea, head of education at Unison, said she was "very concerned" some teaching assistants might be being stretched.

"Most of our members are actually being paid incredibly low rates of pay, most of them haven't got sufficient qualifications.

"Part of the workforce agreement says that to do specified work, to actually be actively teaching, should be someone who is HLTA - higher level teaching assistant level - only about 25% of the people we surveyed actually had that qualification," she said.

Margaret Morrissey, from the campaign group Parents Outloud, said teaching assistants were "probably the best thing to have happened to schools in the last decade" but there was reason to be "cautious".

"The occasional emergency teaching or class supervision by a teaching assistant is going to harm no children.

"But they don't have a teaching degree... they are not there to teach, they are there to assist.

"So governors have got to be very clear they ensure there is money and provision for a supply teacher to come in," she said.