Unrest in Education

Finally the teachers have had enough of testing and are taking on the government.

It's been a long time coming but all enthusiastic teachers and heads will be behind this rebellion against SATS.

The Government have for the last ten years adopted a very simpleminded approach to raising school standards. They thought that by measuring the performance of schools this would improve education.

In fact this has had quite the opposite effect. Teaching has switched all its emphasis to getting good results in the SATS. Education - inspiring students to want to learn, to want to find out for themselves - has gone out of the window.

In the early days many enthusiastic and inspirational teachers got out of the teaching profession. They objected to being told how to teach their subjects and being capable people they had no trouble finding alternative employment.

The thought was that by setting standards this would make poor teachers teach better. This doesn't work in practice. Instead of improving they find ways of appearing to do so. They make it as easy as possible for pupils to get through their exams by providing ready-made worksheets for the students to fill in. Their heads dictated that the borderline students had extra coaching so that they achieved the magical C grade. Those that were clearly at E and below would be kept quiet if possible or even encouraged to stay away from school because they saw themselves as no-hopers and became disruptive.

In many schools the teachers that are left are without fighting spirit and conform to the requirements of their management. They follow mindnumbing lesson plans that follow the National Curriculum. They are depressed and produce uninspiring lessons which follow a tried and tested mediocre level of 'success'.

At last the teachers have had enough which is brilliant news for all of us. They should be encouraged vigorously!