Introduction
The primary goal of every teacher is to ensure excellence in his or her own pupils. Unlike in the past when the performance of the teacher was measurable by the test scores, it is necessary to understand that there are many shortcomings, which, are attached to this problem. One of key things that could help improve the effectiveness of education in England is evaluating on the teachers’ performance and getting the necessary strategies that can develop their productivity in their work place (Rohlen & LeTendre, 1996).
It is evident that teachers represent one of the most essential and biggest resources in England. Likewise, the performance of teachers is very critical to the academic performance of pupils and other students in the learning institutions. It is also true that policy makers in charge of the education sector in England can really affect the performance of teachers and hence, improve the level of student achievement (Anderson, Katz & Wilson, 2004). Therefore, it is important to develop the performance of teachers since having effective teaching rather than just average performers in the teaching sector would raise each pupil’s academic performance by a big percentage (Richards, 1986).
In order to examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in performance and development system of teachers in England, a number of factors would be taken into consideration using the SWOT analysis.
Strengths
Continuous employment of qualified teachers to avoid incidences of shortage-The government of England has over the years invested in its education (Hoyle & Megarry, 1980). This has helped to avoid unnecessary shortages of teachers, which could strain them and therefore affect their performance at the workplace.
Good relationships between teachers and students – the teachers have embraced close relationships with their students, which enhances the ability of students to ask questions and clarifications after lectures (Shagan, 2011).
Professional development programmes – The education sector organizes seminars and workshops the aim of improving their developing their teaching abilities. This therefore translates to good overall performance (Swartz & Klein, 2003).
Good salaries and remunerations – The government has really tried to offer good salaries to the teachers to ensure motivation in their work. It also enhances satisfaction and their quality of life and therefore they can give the best to their students (Cullingford & Oliver, 2001).
Corporate planning – Most of the schools in England embrace teamwork and therefore the head teachers and teachers have joint meetings to plan the curriculum. This has really helped in building good relationships between the administrators and fellow teachers, which reflects in their performance (Hollins, 2011).
The principals in the school ensure that teachers do not miss classes and hence affect the student’s performance through close monitoring.
Teacher competency is highly emphasized during recruitment to ensure that teachers possess professional values, knowledge and understanding, critical self-evaluation and development, which are essential for one to be competent.
Weaknesses
- Poor leadership in the leadership in the schools – It is true that leaders of schools have a critical role in the administration and in the overall management of schools. This signifies that proper leadership will invest in developing the performance of the teachers (Rohlen & LeTendre, 1996). On the other hand, most teachers are dissatisfied with the school’s leaderships because they lack ideas and strategies of improving the performance of the schools.
- Low self-esteem – Research has established that a large number of teachers suffer from low self-esteem and are therefore unable to present the curriculum as expected before the entire class. Mostly, this problem is associated with teachers who had part time classes during their study and thus this really affects their performance (Richards & Lockhart, 1994).
- Lack of consensus – in most institutions teachers work independently and therefore they do not agree to share their lessons, which might be important in case of uncertainties like sicknesses.
- Low incomes – It is unfortunate to discover that teachers are receiving low salaries given that they perform a very essential role in the economy. This is unlike the politicians, business people, and other workers whom earn a lot of money despite the importance of teachers in a nation.
- Poor communication skills – this mostly results from inadequate training. It really affects their performance since passing information to the student will be a main challenge.
- Some learning institutions have poor facilities and therefore teachers in such remote areas lack some necessary materials, which could improve their performance (Lomax, P. (1990).
Opportunities
- Availability of scholarships – these scholarships are available for the teachers and other funding opportunities for those who wish to further their studies.
- Flexible programs – the approaches to in service training are very flexible.
Threats
- Brain drain – Talented teachers mostly leave the teaching practice to go for greener pastures elsewhere. This leaves a gap that is hard to fill since getting such qualified and competent staff is very hard Likewise, this reduces the attainable performance and hence the quality of education (Checkland & Poulter, 2006). Such teachers may leave due to smaller pay in the high schools, primary schools, or because of greener pastures that have emerged somewhere. Hence, some motivation may go a long way in retaining such teachers.
- Some schools lack funding for employing professional teachers and in the end employ incompetent teachers. This leads to the dismal performance in the schools and hence the poor overall grades the students get in class. The teachers do not have prior skills that are needed in the handling of students in class. The students end up suffering for the mistakes of the schools and the education system’s lack of enforcement in the recruitment of able teachers (Richards, 1986). Thus, teaches have to be well motivated or they may move from one school to another or one profession to another.
- Poor pay has resulted in teachers not delivering their services effectively. The low salary may not cater for all the needs of the teacher, which may be needs of their family.
- This will enable them to meet their needs and hence carry out their duties efficiently and properly. Teacher development therefore needs to be looked into to promote good and quality education.
In conclusion, raising the standard of a poor performing teacher and developing them to become high performers can be very costly but this has a positive effect of increasing the lifetime performance of a class in England (Best & Sidwell, 1967). Therefore, if the government would invest in improving the quality of the teachers through intense trainings would really improve the overall productivity of the teachers and performance of the students (Gray, 2001).
In addition, improving the effectiveness and the performance of the teacher will not only have a positive impact on the student’s performance but also on the overall performance of the country’s economy (Garton & Richards, 2008).. This would result because students will acquire necessary skills and advanced abilities that can improve innovation and invention hence the birth of a very competitive economy. Likewise, it is necessary to note that despite the government’s efforts to improve the quality and performance of the teacher, this is entirely dependent such factors such as the teacher’s talent and their effort to fulfill their mandate.
References
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