28th May 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Ofsted’s chief schools inspector has said that if teachers are to be paid higher wages, then class sizes must increase. He went on to say that schools could not afford “highly paid” staff, whilst maintaining reasonable class sizes. His comments come after legislation to introduce performance related pay for teacher has been passed. The scheme for rewarding teachers based on performance will commence from September this year.
The scheme has come under fire from schools and teachers, who say that the decision to increase teachers’ pay should be made in line with length of service rather than performance. The government has said that head-teachers should appreciate the freedom they will be given to reward the best performing teachers. Under the scheme, head-teachers will examine pupil progress in their teachers’ classes, and overall results. However, teaching unions have hit back at the plans, pointing out that in order to reward teachers, they will have to take the decision to increase class sizes. The NUT released a statement in which they said that this was not a choice any head-teacher wants to be faced with.
The Department for Education has stuck by the plans, arguing that performance related pay would help schools attract and retain the best teachers. When asked about the money to fund this coming from increased class sizes, they responded that head-teachers are expected to make the decision based on what is right for their school. They have advised heads to look at areas including exam results, behaviour management and lesson planning when deciding where to allocate pay increases. Ofsted maintain that in order to the scheme to be implemented, class sizes in every school will have to be increased.