Should dunce teachers be given detention?

 

So, bit worried that one of your children’s teachers is delivering the educational equivalent of Rooney’s left foot in the World Cup? Not to worry. Zenna Atkins, chairman of the Office for Standards in Education (aka Ofsted), reassures parents that ‘every school should have a useless teacher’. After all, she follows up: having a bad teacher isn’t necessarily ‘an absolute disaster’ because it gives children a good ‘learning lesson’ in life. 

Well, that’s alright then. So the maths teacher might be ill-equipped to explain the finer points of calculus. Count up the positives instead: at least he or she is giving children the opportunity to learn that authority figures are fallible. Perhaps a sports teacher is unable to touch his toes – does that necessarily make him unfit for office? And if a chemistry teacher occasionally burns down a lab with the Bunsen burners, well, what a fabulous chance to see at first-hand what the emergency services actually do.

While Zenna Atkins stressed that her comments were her own personal views, we can’t help wondering how an exchange might go should she end up facing one of her ‘useless teachers’ at a parent’s evening. ‘No, Zenna with two ‘n’s. Oh, you can’t spell? And you’re the English teacher? I’m so pleased. Thank you for giving my child the chance to express herself in her own way’.

Can’t quite imagine it.

Useless professionals shouldn’t be tolerated in any profession. And in teaching, even less so. If you’re unlucky enough to start out with a bad teacher, it can be hard to make up the damage it can do to your perception of learning. If you’re bored in a particular subject, it can make it much harder for the teacher following the dud lesson to engage you. And while education isn’t all about grades, missing out on getting a high one can limit your options in life. After all, many employers still look at a minimum grade C in maths and English as an entry level requirement. So failure, because you’ve been badly taught, should never be an option.

The whole thing makes me angry. Education in the UK is enough of a lottery without tolerating teachers who aren’t any good at their job. It’s also an insult to suggest to the majority of dedicated, fantastic teachers that rotten apples don’t really matter. When it comes to equipping a child for life, I know that I’d prefer the best possible opportunities, rather than the chance to learn from someone else’s mistakes.