Conservatives propose National Teaching Service for under achieving schools

Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed immediate action to be taken into failing schools across England by sending in the best teachers. He has stated that the project will help 100,000 pupils in more than 500 schools, but that this will only materialize if the Conservatives win the general election. The project aims to help pupils "reach their potential and succeed in life," says Cameron. The PM intends to use a National Teaching Service to ensure that the schools, which Ofsted has regarded as severely failing, get the best skilled teachers. The service would produce a central pool of highly qualified, trained teachers who are then distributed out to these schools. They would be hired by the service itself and so are independent from the schools they work in. Cameron's proposal to use The National Teaching Service has been welcomed by Teach First, a leading recruiter of high-achieving graduates who work in difficult schools. Education secretary Nicky Morgan said, "we have witnessed a revolution in school standards over the past four years ["¦] but there is more to do, and the next phase of the plan must go further and faster in targeting the schools where failure has become ingrained." Brian Lightman, who is head of the Association of School and College Leaders, supports the proposal as he believes that the policy would provide schools with the "essential support" of senior staff and "first-rate classroom teachers."

Russell Hobby, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers has criticised the government's proposal as he believes that previous government intervention has caused the schools to suffer: "The announcement is all the more intolerable, because the government's own policies cause more delays to school improvement than any head teacher ever could."

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