Master teachers – our children’s life chances depend upon these reforms

In chapter 2 of the Analects Confucius wrote: “A man who reviews the old so as to find out the new is qualified to teach others”. Thus becoming the earliest recorded advocate for a highly qualified teaching workforce, reflective continuous professional development (CPD) and, perhaps, the founding member of ‘the Blob’.  And thanks in no small part to the great Chinese Master’s work, a reverence for teaching became a hallmark of the Eastern education tradition. Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore  – whichever shores the Chinese Seas wash upon, you can be sure that there lies a deep-seated respect for the noble profession.

Such prestige however, should not be dismissed as a benign cultural norm. Because the professional standing of teachers also has an impact on hard public policy. Finland may have squeaked into the top five in science, but in the OECD’s latest PISA survey – the most respected international comparison for education – the Far East took an unprecedented clean sweep of reading, maths and the other four places in science. And some features are common to all:  a relentless focus on improving teacher quality, a classroom culture of high expectations and an understanding of the crucial importance of CPD. In Shanghai, the top performing jurisdiction in all three subjects, newly qualified teachers undertake 240 hours of professional development in the first five years, whilst in Singapore all teachers are expected to do a minimum of 100 every year. The Department of Education’s latest Teacher Workload survey suggested that the average secondary school teacher here in the UK would be very lucky to enjoy as little as 2 hours a week. But with England languishing at 26th, 23rd and 21st in maths, reading and sciences respectively, it is time to emulate the East and focus on the quality of teaching.

To be frank, it is head-scratchingly mystifying that any of this should need saying. After all, it does not take the wisdom of Confucius to understand that teachers make the biggest difference to our children’s attainment – a passing familiarity with the evidence should be enough. Yet whether it is frenetic structural reform, the relentless curriculum tinkering or his endless tweaking of the accountability framework, Michael Gove’s focus has been anywhere but. Indeed, his signature policy on this most crucial of areas is to allow unqualified teachers into the classroom on a permanent basis making the UK the only place in the developed world that doesn’t expect teachers to have a formal qualification. When we know that teaching quality can make up to a year’s difference to the learning progress of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who may lack the social capital and other resources to fall back upon, such deregulatory mania is totally and utterly regressive.

The Labour Party would stop unqualified teachers and because, like Confucius, we believe raising standards will require teachers to reflect, update and hone their practice based upon innovation and the latest subject knowledge, we would also expect them to revalidate their expertise and regular intervals throughout their career.  Qualified Teacher Status should be the beginning of a teacher’s developmental journey not the end and making sure we have a world-class teacher in every classroom, studio and workshop would be the animating purpose of our approach to education in government

Yet the truth is that given the scale of teachers’ demoralisation under the Coalition and the size of the challenge we face in order to properly prepare our young people for the demands of the 21st century, we will need to do far more to elevate the profession’s status. It simply cannot be right that the best teachers feel they need to go into management or leadership just to advance their careers – we need to think about how new career opportunities might attract but also keep the best and the brightest in the classroom. And it is here that the example of the East shines brightest and in particular that of Singapore. Because in Singapore there is a clearly defined, high aspiration career progression track that recognises the best teachers as “Master Teachers”.

Obviously Master Teacher status is in part a recognition of outstanding achievement and with it comes a greater responsibility to mentor and coach the next generation of  high-performing teachers. But in terms of morale it is the opportunity for classroom teachers to meaningfully progress their careers that makes all the difference. Fully 80% of parents in Singapore would encourage their child to become a teacher – exactly the sort of standing and esteem we want to see here.

Of course the last Labour Government did introduce the Advanced Skills Teacher position, but the Singaporean model is far more structured. So we will work with the profession in order to draw up a Singapore-style framework of new career pathways, starting with a Master Teacher route.

We need to unlock teachers’ aspirations to be all they can and should be – professionals whose job is so important it requires the very highest levels of performance. But we need to respect and value them properly. Our children’s life chances and the future prosperity of the nation depend on it.