The Monty Python star Terry Jones and the bestselling authors Michael Holroyd and Michael Rosen are among the signatories of an open letter condemning teachers’ workload, which they say is being exacerbated by political interference and an “irrational and punitive system of inspection”.
The letter to the Guardian, signed by hundreds of writers, teachers and education professionals, calls on the government to reform inspection and accountability in order to allow teachers to “devote their energies to teaching and learning”.
It was prompted by a recent YouGov poll that found that more than half of teachers are considering quitting the profession in the next two years because of the volume of work and the need to find a better life-work balance.
The letter says: “We believe that enthusiastic, confident teachers, with a long-term commitment to education, are essential to children’s development, so these figures are deeply disturbing to us.
“Worse though are the reports that this workload isn’t driven by preparing exciting lessons for children but by demands for ‘evidence’ and ‘data’ arising from an increasingly irrational and punitive system of inspection and from constant political interference in curriculum and assessment.”
It says there is concern that these “excessive burdens” are demoralising staff, and it appeals to the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, and the schools minister, Nick Gibb, to turn their focus away from converting all schools into academies.
Instead, it calls on them to “look urgently at the core issues and reform inspection and accountability so that teachers can devote their energies to teaching and learning”.
The letter was initiated by Alan Gibbons, an award-winning children’s writer who retired from teaching 10 years ago and now does more than 150 school visits a year.
He said: “I’ve seen an exponential growth in teachers’ workload, particularly in data collection. That was always considered secondary to teaching and learning, but now it seems to be right at the forefront.”
He said the teachers he met were “stressed and often tearful”. “I’ve seen teachers in the staffroom burst into tears and they say it’s not to do with the children, it’s to do with the pressure of paperwork. I’ve never seen teachers so disenchanted. I had one teacher say to me, ‘I can either be happy or I can be a teacher’, and I don’t think it should be like that.”
Last month’s YouGov poll found that two-thirds of the 1,020 teachers surveyed felt morale had declined in the past five year, compared with one in 10 who felt it had improved. Almost three-quarters agreed that current policies for the school curriculum and pupil assessment were narrow and uncreative.
Morgan launched a “workload challenge” last year aimed at addressing the profession’s concerns, which attracted 44,000 responses, and she has promised to ease the administrative burden on teachers. Teaching unions remain dissatisfied with the government’s response, which they have said was a “missed opportunity”.
The Department for Education said: “Great teachers are at the heart of our drive to ensure every child can fulfil their potential and we know the number and quality of teachers in our classrooms is at an all-time high.
“We recognise that unnecessary workload is one of the biggest frustrations for the profession which is why we are working with leading education to tackle issues like marking, lesson planning or expectations around inspections.
“As a result of this, Ofsted has already produced a myth-buster clearly setting out the things that inspectors do and do not expect to see and are taking steps to simplify their handbook. We have also given schools the freedom to set their own pay allowing heads to reward their best teachers.”
