NUT react to Select Committee report on Ofsted

Monday, 18 April 2011 12:00 AM

Commenting on the Education Committee report on The Role and Performance of Ofsted, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers' union, said;

"While the NUT would have preferred for Ofsted to be abolished altogether, it is pleasing to see that the Select Committee has taken on board many of the NUT's suggestions, in particular the conclusion that the longer-term aim should be to move to a system of self-improvement by schools, where the Education Inspectorate's role would be much reduced.

"This would go some way to alleviating the stress and anxiety that the Education Committee recognised is being generated by Ofsted. It is entirely unacceptable that heads and teachers are too often driven to despair by an inspection system that many feel is there to catch them out, rather than praise them for what they are doing well.

"More emphasis on pupil progression rather than absolute measures such as 'five good GCSEs' or the English Baccalaureate when considering schools' performance should help to ensure that schools serving the most challenging communities are not unfairly penalised.

"Similarly having senior practitioners, such as local authority advisors and head teachers on inspection teams, would at least ensure that inspection teams have more relevant practical experience. The Education Select Committee recognised that the quality of inspectors is not always what it should be. Too often Ofsted inspectors appear to have a woeful lack of knowledge about life in the modern classroom or indeed any classroom at all."

END pr41-2011
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