When I was training to be a teacher there were no leaguetables and we learnt the difference between education and training. We were tobe educators. There was no mention of exam pass rates success was inspiring adesire for learning and developing each individual’s potential. Of course inthe real world we soon learnt that success was measured in terms of the noiseor lack of it coming from the classroom and the assessment of our control theclass by our colleagues. There were two views on how this could be achieved youcould work hard on your preparation and come up with an endless stream of waysto fire their imagination and hold their attention or you could instil the fearof god in them. Most of us quickly realised you needed to be able to do bothbecause sometimes you ran out of inspiration and energy and sometimes wellsometimes it just didn’t go according to plan. Exams and cheating wasn’t reallyan issue because we weren’t allowed near the exam classes and exams were “sat”in the hall under exam conditions. We never discussed the moral dilemma abouthow much help a teacher should give a pupil or whether it was acceptable togive clues about what might be in the test and we certainly didn’t debatewhether it was ever acceptable for a teacher to manipulate results or re writetheir pupils exam answers.I was shocked to read the findings of a recent survey of512 teachers by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in which 35% would betempted to re write their pupils exam papers. A few admitted cheating was rifein their school. I was shocked but not surprised. The pressure to improve students’grades and maintain the schools status in the league tables is relentless andthe fear of an Ofstead inspection if results dropped are such that you canunderstand how some may give into the temptation.I don’t think teachers today are any less moral orprofessional but I do think the culture has changed. We have seen the sameaccusations and the same confessions of fiddling the figures in hospitals andsocial service department. It is all too easy to condemn individuals, isn’t ittime to move away from this corrupting obsession with results and leaguetables? Blair McPherson author of UnLearning management andEquipping managers for an uncertain future both published by Russell House.
