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| Teachers are deserting the UK in droves. Excellent work, Michael Wilshaw | Teachers are deserting the UK in droves. Excellent work, Michael Wilshaw |
| (6 months later) | |
| The chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has claimed that the UK faces a “teacher brain drain” as newly qualified educators move abroad to find work. But actually it’s not just the warmer climate of places such as the Middle East that’s so appealing to the UK’s best teachers all of a sudden – it’s the warmer professional climate that the international schools offer that’s really alluring. That, along with tax-free pay and gratis accommodation. | The chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has claimed that the UK faces a “teacher brain drain” as newly qualified educators move abroad to find work. But actually it’s not just the warmer climate of places such as the Middle East that’s so appealing to the UK’s best teachers all of a sudden – it’s the warmer professional climate that the international schools offer that’s really alluring. That, along with tax-free pay and gratis accommodation. |
| But instead of looking at the real reason teachers are leaving, Wilshaw – in his arrogance – is firing warning shots at the teaching profession and saying, among other things, that teachers who have trained in our system should make a contractual commitment to teach in the UK for the first few years of their careers. | But instead of looking at the real reason teachers are leaving, Wilshaw – in his arrogance – is firing warning shots at the teaching profession and saying, among other things, that teachers who have trained in our system should make a contractual commitment to teach in the UK for the first few years of their careers. |
| This will do nothing to address the real problems afflicting our education system. These words of warning come from a man who was instrumental – along with Michael Gove – in creating the problems in the first place. Wilshaw was instructed by Gove to raise standards not long after he took office in 2012. Ofsted suddenly got nasty. Helpful, patient guide dogs became ruthless, feral attack hounds, and were let loose on any school in the country they saw fit to rip to pieces. Any weakness in a school was ruthlessly exploited, and the results were catastrophic. Outstanding schools were downgraded to just good. Good schools were suddenly deemed to be coasting, and satisfactory ones were rebranded as requiring improvement, a slightly more diplomatic way of saying “inadequate”, the fourth and most damning of verdicts. Suddenly nothing, it seemed, could ever be good enough. | This will do nothing to address the real problems afflicting our education system. These words of warning come from a man who was instrumental – along with Michael Gove – in creating the problems in the first place. Wilshaw was instructed by Gove to raise standards not long after he took office in 2012. Ofsted suddenly got nasty. Helpful, patient guide dogs became ruthless, feral attack hounds, and were let loose on any school in the country they saw fit to rip to pieces. Any weakness in a school was ruthlessly exploited, and the results were catastrophic. Outstanding schools were downgraded to just good. Good schools were suddenly deemed to be coasting, and satisfactory ones were rebranded as requiring improvement, a slightly more diplomatic way of saying “inadequate”, the fourth and most damning of verdicts. Suddenly nothing, it seemed, could ever be good enough. |
| An outstanding verdict – like a pardon for a death-row prisoner – became something that schools strove tirelessly to achieve, and, needless to say, the teaching profession rapidly lost heart. Stories of concern began circulating between school networks and online about inconsistencies within Ofsted’s own judgments, and before long the inspectorate knew it was in trouble. After toying with the wildly impractical idea of double inspections, it finally succumbed to pressure and purged some 1,200 inspectors deemed “not good enough” in June 2014. | An outstanding verdict – like a pardon for a death-row prisoner – became something that schools strove tirelessly to achieve, and, needless to say, the teaching profession rapidly lost heart. Stories of concern began circulating between school networks and online about inconsistencies within Ofsted’s own judgments, and before long the inspectorate knew it was in trouble. After toying with the wildly impractical idea of double inspections, it finally succumbed to pressure and purged some 1,200 inspectors deemed “not good enough” in June 2014. |
| By then, of course, the damage was done. The government has failed to hit its teacher recruitment target for the fourth year in a row, yet the heads of education secretary Nicky Morgan, schools minister Nick Gibb and the leaders of the department for education remain firmly wedged in the sand. Teachers of all shapes and sizes – from struggling fledglings, to those deemed outstanding and at the height of their careers – have been steadily leaving the profession, many to new career paths altogether, keen to forget their UK teaching nightmares. And there are many others who cannot leave teaching, and so will take their talent abroad, where they are valued much more highly. It would be incredibly naive to believe that this mass exodus had nothing to do with the recent behaviour of Ofsted. | By then, of course, the damage was done. The government has failed to hit its teacher recruitment target for the fourth year in a row, yet the heads of education secretary Nicky Morgan, schools minister Nick Gibb and the leaders of the department for education remain firmly wedged in the sand. Teachers of all shapes and sizes – from struggling fledglings, to those deemed outstanding and at the height of their careers – have been steadily leaving the profession, many to new career paths altogether, keen to forget their UK teaching nightmares. And there are many others who cannot leave teaching, and so will take their talent abroad, where they are valued much more highly. It would be incredibly naive to believe that this mass exodus had nothing to do with the recent behaviour of Ofsted. |
| So now Wilshaw, approaching the end of his tenure as Ofsted’s chief inspector, is trying to shape some sort of credible legacy. “We need to talk up the profession, and highlight the nobility of teaching,” he barked on Radio 4’s Today programme. This comes from the same man who claimed, in this very newspaper back in 2012: “If anyone says to you that staff morale is at an all-time low, you know you are doing something right.” | So now Wilshaw, approaching the end of his tenure as Ofsted’s chief inspector, is trying to shape some sort of credible legacy. “We need to talk up the profession, and highlight the nobility of teaching,” he barked on Radio 4’s Today programme. This comes from the same man who claimed, in this very newspaper back in 2012: “If anyone says to you that staff morale is at an all-time low, you know you are doing something right.” |
| This is the last throw of the dice for a desperate man responsible for ending many promising teaching careers | This is the last throw of the dice for a desperate man responsible for ending many promising teaching careers |
| Wilshaw may well live to regret those ill-chosen words. They have arguably been the catalyst for everything that has gone so badly wrong for UK education ever since. His latest attempt to try to force newly qualified teachers to remain in the UK for the first two years of their careers, by means of magical golden handcuffs (details yet to be confirmed), is little short of blackmail. It’s also indicative of the systematically punitive measures he has delighted in imposing upon so many in the teaching profession during his tenure. It is the last throw of the dice for a desperate man who is responsible, directly or indirectly, for prematurely ending many promising teaching careers, whether it be through unmanageable workloads, heavy-handed monitoring and accountability measures or outright intimidation and bullying. Frankly, things have never been worse, and if Wilshaw is concerned about the long-term effects of a so-called brain-drain of UK teachers, he’s got only himself to blame. | Wilshaw may well live to regret those ill-chosen words. They have arguably been the catalyst for everything that has gone so badly wrong for UK education ever since. His latest attempt to try to force newly qualified teachers to remain in the UK for the first two years of their careers, by means of magical golden handcuffs (details yet to be confirmed), is little short of blackmail. It’s also indicative of the systematically punitive measures he has delighted in imposing upon so many in the teaching profession during his tenure. It is the last throw of the dice for a desperate man who is responsible, directly or indirectly, for prematurely ending many promising teaching careers, whether it be through unmanageable workloads, heavy-handed monitoring and accountability measures or outright intimidation and bullying. Frankly, things have never been worse, and if Wilshaw is concerned about the long-term effects of a so-called brain-drain of UK teachers, he’s got only himself to blame. |
| Education has become a global institution in recent years, and Wilshaw’s successor would do well to be mindful of this when he or she takes over in December. International schools are opening in order to meet the rapidly growing needs of expat families whose careers are based overseas, yet who want their children to have access to a UK-style education. If the British government wants the best of its teachers to stick around and deliver this on home soil, it needs to provide good reasons for them to do so – and they need to be better reasons than flimsy, inconsequential pre-election workload surveys and 1% pay increases. Respect from Ofsted and the department for education, constructive rather than punitive criticism and realistic workload expectations would be a good start. Until that happens, the option to leave and work abroad for the UK-trained teacher isn’t so much of a brain-drain, as a complete no-brainer. | Education has become a global institution in recent years, and Wilshaw’s successor would do well to be mindful of this when he or she takes over in December. International schools are opening in order to meet the rapidly growing needs of expat families whose careers are based overseas, yet who want their children to have access to a UK-style education. If the British government wants the best of its teachers to stick around and deliver this on home soil, it needs to provide good reasons for them to do so – and they need to be better reasons than flimsy, inconsequential pre-election workload surveys and 1% pay increases. Respect from Ofsted and the department for education, constructive rather than punitive criticism and realistic workload expectations would be a good start. Until that happens, the option to leave and work abroad for the UK-trained teacher isn’t so much of a brain-drain, as a complete no-brainer. |
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