Children want a say in teacher recruitment, says children's commissioner
Janaki Mahadevan
Monday, March 28, 2011
Nearly two-thirds of children want some involvement in recruiting teachers, according to the latest report from the children's commissioner.
The research, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) included an online survey of nearly 2,000 children aged between nine and 16 and a number of focus groups.
Around 18 per cent of children said they had been involved in recruiting teachers but 65 per cent said they would like to do so in the future.
Maggie Atkinson, children’s commissioner for England, said: "I congratulate the schools that already involve their pupils in selecting teachers, and would strongly encourage more schools to start doing it. Young people are a school’s customers, and they see lots of different teaching styles over the course of a school career.
"This is not about putting the children in charge. Rather, it is about making use of their experience. There are many ways of involving young people. I was interviewed by a panel of young people as part of the selection process for children’s commissioner, for example."
Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said while it would not be appropriate for children to block a teacher’s appointment, children’s views should be considered.
"If we want students to be properly engaged in their own learning it is quite right that they should be able to make germane comments about the teaching and learning style used in their school," she said. "While it is not appropriate for pupils to have any kind of veto in appointing teachers we do think that it is right for pupils to be members of governing bodies and for their opinions to be heard during the interview process."
Around three in five children questioned said they enjoyed school and half found lessons interesting. But pressure to achieve was identified as an issue with about half worrying about school work and exams and about a third feeling their school puts too much pressure on them to do well. A quarter said they feel their parents or carers put too much pressure on them.
Blower added: "The fact that too many children think there is excessive pressure on them to do well at school shows, yet again, that the punitive system of assessment and league tables puts an unacceptable strain on pupils. Creating unnecessary stress simply holds children back. Teacher assessment would take much of the fear out of learning, particularly in our primary schools."
While about three in five pupils felt that schools should be able to select pupils by their ability, only one in five said schools should be able to select pupils because of their religion.
The most important priorities for children and young people to improve their school life and education were preventing bullying and having good teachers. Other top priorities focused around the quality of learning opportunities, support to achieve in exams and secondary school admissions.