To raise standards in our schools, we must raise standards in teaching. Teachers whose pupils show the greatest improvements will be the main winners under such a system. But the latter option has already been rejected because of its cost and its failure to meet a key government spending demand - that extra money must be spent in ways which maximise the likely improvement in public services. Last week, Mr Blunkett told a Fabian Society conference in London that reform of teachers' pay was essential to raise standards in education and to attract the best graduates into teaching. Outside the teaching profession, what we are saying would not be considered desperately radical.
People say it's difficult to make judgements about whether there are good teachers.
Everyone who has been through school knows perfectly well who is a good teacher. What we have to do is to refine the method for defining them, so that it is transparent and fair. Teachers' unions will oppose proposals for payment by results However more radical proposals to give teachers a substantial pay rise in exchange for a sharp reduction in their 13-week holiday allowance appear to have been rejected. Another key issue to be addressed by the shake-up on pay in the Green Paper is the shortage of graduates prepared to enter teaching. Low status and unattractive prospects for pay have been indentified as causes of a deepening recruitment crisis.