Teachers are leaving the profession in numbers because of workload stress. There is an approaching crisis in teacher recruitment and training. And an underlying agenda of privatising education with the free-school and academies programme. So how does Labour shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt respond?
With an idea that teachers should take some sort of 'hippocratic oath' pledging to uphold the nobility of their profession.
Of course that will improve standards of education. Much like the Hippocratic oath has ensured that no doctor has ever be guilty of malpractice. Or how the oath that policemen take has prevented miscarriages of justice. Or the oath that MPs take has prevented corruption....
1 comment:
I agree with you that an oath is not the solution to problems within the teaching profession, but I do maintain that the Hippocratic Oath in medicine still plays a crucial role, as does the oath taken by members of the veterinary profession. Yes, I am aware that the Hippocratic Oath forbids surgery which is why we revert to the title of Mr for surgeons, but the oath - despite scoundrels who break it - features strongly in formulating ethical guidelines and health care policies. If only the ethical content of the oath had not been undermined by cost-benefit health care policies, incoherent arguments regarding the status of the aborted fetus, and the bureaucracy involved in the NHS.
Post a Comment