The ingredient that counts
ETON COLLEGE, the school that taught David Cameron, the Conservative leader, is renowned for its excellence. Indeed, 175 of its boys gained the top grade in all their A-level exams in 2008. In the rest of the country, only 75 state-school boys from families poor enough to qualify for free school meals achieved the same distinction. On January 19th Mr Cameron laid out his plans for giving more children in state schools access to the sort of education—and the opportunities it affords for students to attend good universities—provided by his alma mater.
According to the plan, “the single most important thing for a good education is for every child to have access to a good teacher”. Yet in recent years graduates have rarely aspired to such a grubby job as teaching. Instead, the country coasts along on the education—itself far from perfect—provided a generation or so ago to its present workforce. Then, teaching was not only a respected profession but also a way in which a clever poor child could leap into the middle class. It was the most popular career choice for an educated woman.
But Mr Cameron is right: the quality of teaching affects student performance more than anything else in school, be it the amount of money spent, class size, the length of the school day or the age at which formal lessons begin. In 2007 an international investigation by an outsider to education—McKinsey, a consultancy that normally advises companies and governments—concluded that differences between countries in the cognitive skills of pupils aged 15 could be explained by differences in the ways in which teachers were recruited, trained and supported. It advised countries to accept only the most academically able as teachers, to train them well and encourage them to share ideas in the classroom. The conclusions were echoed the following year by the European Trade Union Committee for Education, which did its own research and urged that teachers hold a master's degree.
According to a comprehensive study carried out by the OECD, a rich-country club, Finland leads the world at educating its children, and Finnish teachers must be educated to that level. In England (which the OECD no longer ranks in the top ten), a third-class or even a pass bachelor's degree will suffice, along with the most basic qualifications in English and maths.
Mr Cameron proposes to limit state funding for teacher training to those who gain lower-second class degrees or better. Teaching unions are predictably cross, arguing that some people might struggle to achieve much at university for reasons other than their intellectual ability.
The Tories' timing is canny. Demand for teacher training has risen as graduates struggle to find other work during the recession. Should the party win the imminent election, its policy may work, at least in the short term. Whether it will succeed in burnishing the cultural image of teaching once the economy has recovered, and students at elite universities are once again enticed by the high pay offered elsewhere, seems less likely.
The Conservatives also want to expand the Teach First scheme, which is modelled on Teach for America. It hand-picks highly-motivated graduates to teach for two years in schools with a significant proportion of poor children. After serving their time they will not only have earned their spurs as teachers but will also be halfway through a master's degree.
Although it could never become the most common route by which to enter teaching, the scheme could help to boost the supply of good head teachers (Teach First applicants are screened for leadership potential). It may well prove useful, moreover, in attempting to breathe life into another of the proposals published in the draft manifesto: a pledge to allow any “good education provider”—charities, churches, even groups of parents—to open new state schools. Such measures may not produce a new Eton but, if they can boost the achievements of the poor, they will make Britain a fairer society.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Teach the teacher"