Sunday, February 11, 2007
Performance pay for teachers
The Federal Education minister Julie Bishop wants to pay teachers based on their performance and has received backing from the Labour opposition (see this article from The Age for more)
While this idea has merit and could in fact result in higher income for some teachers, I wonder how performance is going to be measured. How can the performance of a teacher in a disadvantaged school with disengaged students be compared to the performance of a teacher at an exclusive private school where all the students are motivated and indeed want to be at school and maximise their learning?
The focus should be on attracting the best and most qualified (not to mention motivated) people into the teaching profession in the first place and then keeping them there with appropriate pay based on their professional status. Teaching as a career has been devalued to such an extent that universities are forced to lower entrance standards to ensure adequate numbers of new teachers are being trained.
On a different note - perhaps teachers would be more likely to accept performance based pay if politicians were more accountable in the same way. I doubt Ms Bishop’s performance in the education portfolio will be considered when she receives her multi-million dollar superannuation payout.
“You can’t coach that”
