Conservatives aim to improve quality of teaching jobs

The Conservatives have outlined their intention to drive up the quality of those filling teaching posts should they come to power at the next election.

Such a move has been welcomed by a professor of education assessment and the deputy director of the Institute of Education at the University of London, Professor Dylan Wiliam.

He said he was pleased to see that the Tories are committed to the issue of teacher quality, adding that in recent years standards among teachers have risen.

"I'm very much in favour of anything that improves the quality of the profession and in particular anything that makes it a more attractive profession for our smartest young people to go into," said the professor.

He added that schemes such as the Teach First programme have helped to drive up standards among those in the profession and argued that a teaching career is intellectually demanding and complex.

Professor Wiliam added that the presence of able and keen teachers in a school can help to boost the performance of others working at the same institution.

Written by Theo Foulds.

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