''Every child needs a bad teacher''

Monday, July 12, 2010

Every school should have its share of poor quality teachers so that children can learn about the value of standards and how to cope with incompetent people in authority, according to Zenna Atkins, outgoing chair of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted).

Claiming it would be wrong to sack useless members of staff because schools need to reflect society, Atkins told the Sunday Times: "It's about learning how to identify good role models. One really good thing about primary school is that every kid learns how to deal with a really s*** teacher. I would not remove every single useless teacher because every grown-up in a workplace needs to learn to deal with the moron who sits four desks down without lamping them and to deal with authority that's useless."

She went on: "I'd like to keep the number low, but if every primary school has one pretty naff teacher, this helps kids realise that even if you know the quality of authority is not good, you have to learn how to play it."

Atkins, who will leave Ofsted in August and be chief executive of the UK division of GEMS Education, was commenting after the General Teaching Council revealed that it had struck off just 18 teachers for incompetence in the last 10 years, even though in 2008 it claimed there could be up to 17,000 "substandard" teachers.

Unsurprisingly, Atkins' comments have not gone down well with educationalists. Ex chief inspector of schools Chris Woodhead said: "The woman must be mad. I can't think of a comment more likely to discredit Ofsted or more likely to further damage our children's education."

And Alan Smithers, professor of education at Buckingham University, said: "I very much hope she is deliberately trying to be provocative to engender some discussion of the quality of teaching and how to get rid of incompetent teachers. But if she really believes what she is saying, it is frankly ludicrous. It does not sound like she is a fit person to have been the chair of Ofsted."

Ofsted inspector Rod MacKinnon commented: "I am amazed and horrified. We should seek to give children the best education possible."