National Audit Office study highlights need for a more radical approach to education recruitment
The recent National Audit Office (NAO) study revealing that schools fail one million children every
National Audit Office study highlights need for a more radical approach to education recruitment
Comment from Bob Wicks, Executive Chairman, Select Education
The recent National Audit Office (NAO) study revealing that schools fail one million children every day has highlighted the need for a more radical approach to recruitment in the education sector, according to Bob Wicks, Executive Chairman of Select Education, the UK's number one specialist education recruitment agency. Furthermore, the NAO study has reported that head teachers are 'key to sustaining performance and improvement in any school,' and proceeds to state that the numbers of 'appropriately experienced people' applying for senior posts are falling.
Bob Wicks comments:
What is so galling about the revelation of this catastrophic failing in the education sector, is that the crisis in secondary school leadership especially could be dealt with now, if only a more radical approach to recruitment could be contemplated, such as the separation of management from teaching. The head of a large vehicle manufacturer, retailer, or airline will not necessarily be competent at the operational level, but they will know about the management of people, finance, systems and resources.
At Select Education we believe that in many cases experienced managers drawn from the commercial world would better manage these critical areas in schools. The academic development of the school could then be left to those who know best: the academic specialists teachers, who would be able to focus on the vocation to which they were originally called.
As a result, schools would gain the experienced leaders they desperately need and education standards would improve by enabling teachers to concentrate on teaching. Providing this approach would offer a winwin solution all-round. Moreover, specialist education recruitment agencies, like Aret, our school leadership division, are chomping at the bit to turn this idea into reality straight away.
The recruitment of head teachers or, rather, school managers, from a much wider pool of talent is long overdue. Let us not allow traditional and petty lines of demarcation prevent the obvious solution to a serious problem. After all, with schools failing one million children, the current worn out approach to school leadership cannot be defended and should not be tolerated one day longer.