Ten years on, teaching set for another examination

Professor Gerry McCormac, principal of Stirling University, was yesterday made chairman of a new government-appointed committee set up to re-examine teaching in detail.

Its remit will be to study how effective the previous review of teaching, overseen by Professor Gavin McCrone in 2000, has been.

Key issues will be whether teachers and pupils are still benefiting and whether current practices are suited to the new school system introduced this year, the Curriculum for Excellence.

It will also examine how to recruit the most talented people to both the classroom and to headteaching positions.

The cost and size of the teacher workforce will also be examined, as swingeing budget cuts take effect across the country.

Announcing the review yesterday, education secretary Michael Russell said it was the right time for a "fundamental" assessment of teaching.

However, critics warned the review should not be simply a cost-cutting exercise and must add educational value.

Mr Russell said: "A lot has changed in the past decade, most notably the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, which provides new challenges for teachers and pupils, and we need to ensure we continue to attract the right kind of people into the profession to deliver this new approach to learning and teaching."

• The task: What the in-tray contains

• Case study: 'It's the only job I've ever thought about doing'

• Case study: 'The pay rise was overdue, we had fallen behind'

• The main man: Gerry McCormac

A recent review of teacher training at universities, led by the former head of the school inspectorate Graham Donaldson, called for changes to improve teacher standards including literacy and numeracy tests for applicants.

Ann Ballinger, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association, said many people had been deterred by a lack of jobs and increase in workload.

Thousands of new teachers have been left unemployed after councils cut staff numbers to save money in recent years.Mrs Ballinger said: "Talented graduates are going to go where the jobs are, and there are few jobs here.

"This review is talking about attracting talented professionals and making it a masters-qualified job, but councils are devaluing the jobs by paying people through supply rather than giving them full-time posts."

She said leadership was an issue because extra pressure and responsibility with little extra pay made becoming a headteacher unattractive.

She said: "People don't want to apply because they think it's not worth the money for the huge increase in workload and responsibility and headteachers are increasingly facing burn-out."

The Teachers' Agreement was signed between unions and councils in 2001 and established current terms and conditions across Scotland.

It followed years of industrial unrest in the profession.

The agreement became known as the McCrone deal, despite the professor having no say in the final deal.

Many were critical that his report was cherry picked with many positive recommendations ignored in the final deal.

That gave teachers a salary boost of 23 per cent over three years, promised better training, fewer hours and guaranteed time out of class for preparing lessons and marking.

Ronnie Smith, general secretary of the EIS, said it had enhanced professionalism in schools.

But he warned: "The McCormac Review faces a formidable challenge to fulfil its very wide-ranging remit within the short time available to it (five months, as opposed to nine months for McCrone]; that challenge is exacerbated by the current climate of unprecedented budget cuts that will cause deep damage to the very fabric of the Scottish education system.

"The review could hardly be working under less propitious circumstances."

Prof McCrone said: "It seems a good time to look again.One concern we did have was there should be a higher increase for people at the bottom of the pay scale."

Prof McCormac said the review group would approach this "challenging piece of work" with an open mind.

Margaret Smith, the Lib Dem education spokeswoman, said: "It is essential that this review is driven by what is in the best interests of Scottish education and not as a purely cost-cutting exercise."

Labour's spokesman, Des McNulty, said: "Teachers will rightly see this move as an attack on their conditions of service."