Taxpayers Alliance thinks that schools spend too much on teachers

[HPFA]

The TA (funded by God knows who) thinks that schools are wasting money on teachers rather than educational resources:

The biggest item of expenditure of schools in England was teaching staff costs, with schools spending an average of £783,326 last year. This is more than 11 times the amount spent on learning resources for children.
This is significant for a number of reasons. It highlights the fact that pay for salary is the biggest item of expenditure for schools in England. It also reveals just how much more is being spent by schools on teaching staff costs than on educational resources for children.

Don't know about you but I always thought that teachers were the "educational resources" in a school.

Well, Piggy I’d say that’s a legitimate reaction to this.

Nearly 20 years ago, I worked, briefly, with someone who was pretty friendly with James Tooley (above) and Michael Gove (and other now senior Tories). I was vaguely aware of Gove back then as he lived close to me when I was little and had attended the same primary school several years before me.

I remember this colleague talking to me about vouchers, academies, free schools, gradual marketisation of education back then. And over the last 20 years I’ve seen it gradually rolled out. And I know what kind of thing this colleague talked to me about as being the end goal.

One of the places that this colleague ended up working for a while was the (then) Specialist School’s Trust. It’s trajectory and evolution since the 80s is a pretty good indicator of the direction education policy is following.

I'm sure they can do the job quite expertly on a voluntary basis, themselves

LapsedHumanist I believe this is the aim too.

Of course anyone who works with kids (or teenagers at least) knows that this won't work. A teacher at a previous school tried a computer-based guided teaching method. Basically he wrote lessons for the kids to do on their computers every single lesson. They HATED it. They were very well-behaved and supposedly compliant students, but they revolted. Students need the interaction with the teacher and surprise surprise learn better when an knowledgeable adult explains things to them in an accessible way.

But I have had at least 3 heads complain about the size of the teachers' wage bill - their own salaries not withstanding of course. Many heads, let alone politicians, would love to replace us with computers and reduce us to babysitters.

I think the human element is irreplaceable too Stripeybeachbag.

Have a bit of a wobble about that though when I think of the kids who are around 5 now. The ones who try swiping and double tapping books because they are totally tablet adapted.

The tech market has tried really hard to break into education but the problem is that the results aren’t there to justify the massive set-up costs.

A few years ago loads of schools were looking into providing every kid with an ipad. They were going to replace textbooks and exercise books. There are a few schools that do it, but it hasn’t actually taken off in the way that was anticipated. My school was all set to do it then backtracked, and some local schools have gradually phased out the scheme.

But on the other hand you have a Glasgow council buying virtual reality headsets for all its schools. www.heraldscotland.com/news/16095496.Scots_council_becomes_first_in_UK_to_give_virtual_reality_headsets_to_schools/ Colossal waste of money - I don’t think the Taxpayer’s Alliance would approve of that.

I think we’ll be stuck with boring old human teachers draining the education system of money for some time to come. They’re just too damn effective.

The govt is forever going on about how badly we do in Pisa compared with eg Singapore and S Korea. When I've seen programmes about schools in Asia that are doing well, I see huge classrooms of 40+ students, rows of benches or desks, and a teacher with a whiteboard. Nothing fancy, no expensive equipment. Just old fashioned human teaching and a lot of engaged kids whose parents and governments are interested in their education. We have it all the wrong way round here! Well-paid, well-trained, better respected teachers and sufficiently-funded schools would surely negate the need for masses of IT. Not to mention seeing the children of ministers/CEOs/etc at state schools too

The TPA is an arm of the extreme right-wing of the Tory party who are completely shady about who funds them. So, obviously they'll have a go at teachers.

As someone on Twitter said "surprised they didn't mention the teachers gold-plated pensions while they were at it!" Because obviously they will be minted when they retire

Don’t know much about teachers salaries but I do know they don’t get paid enough havin to deal with self entitled know it all bratty gubshytes all day.