The Chancellor should invest in teachers not buildings to improve education, says peter jones |
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Ask anyone what their schooling really meant to them and they will talk about people – their teachers and friends. But when Gordon Brown used his pre-Budget report last week to focus on education, he announced huge investment not in adding to teacher numbers, but in buildings.
Such a response is typical of Brown. The headteacher of a large London inner-city comprehensive recently told me that his school did not need rebuilding or refurbishing, let alone every 15 years, and could he spend the money on something else? No chance. Recently the government gave every poor pupil a PC. He guessed more than half had already been fenced.
As for the keen, intelligent pupils, they could whistle. 'Gifted and talented' schemes were risibly financed. Only under-achievers were given real money. |
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| People are the last thing Brown understands. He would much rather play with bricks |
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The Greek historian Thucydides got it right 2,500 years ago: "Men are the city, not ships or walls devoid of men." Teachers are the school, and they need time to teach. But what with all the administrative rubbish that lands on their desks, not to mention the growing discipline problems, teaching is the last thing they can expect to do.
A recently retired friend of mine said that when he started teaching, the teaching/admin ratio was about 3:1; when he ended, it felt at times more like 1:3.
The answer is not buildings, but people. The government idea that could bear fruit here is the teaching assistant. As my headteacher friend argued, they have a crucial role in any difficult school, taking on the administrative nonsense, helping with discipline, dealing with parents and freeing teachers to do the job they love. When schools have a one-to-one teacher/teaching assistant ratio, real improvement could happen.
But people are the last thing Gordon Brown understands. He would much rather play with bricks. 
FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 11, 2006
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