Clarke attacks classroom inconsistency
Charles Clarke left some quarters of the teaching profession fuming yesterday when he described improvements in the classroom as “almost hit and miss”.
The education secretary appeared to threaten the recent period of good relations between the government and leading teaching unions with his speech in London.
Addressing a conference held by the General Teaching Council for England, Mr Clarke said that although standards were improving slowly across the country, when viewed subject-by-subject they were patchy.
“It’s not quite hit and miss, but it’s almost hit and miss whether your classroom teacher is working rigorously and systematically to improve the classroom experience for every child,” he added.
“Overall, the system is quite unreliable.”
Chris Keates of the NASUWT said teachers would be “bemused and dismayed” by the secretary of state’s comments.
Speaking to the Guardian, NUT general secretary John Bangs added: “Teachers are battered and confused by conflicting messages about improvement from government.”
