salary increases (within the usual ranges), bonuses and cash incentives do not attract people to teaching, however popular they might be for those already intending to become teachers.”
Of course, the Government’s latest announcement is about getting teachers already in the system to take up work in schools serving disadvantaged areas. It’s shuffling them around, rather than bringing in new blood.
The Durham academics point to evidence which shows, when financial incentives do persuade teachers to work in poorer areas, they tend to gravitate to the high-performing schools and not the tough ones. It rather defeats the object of the incentives.
Where schemes are most effective is when there is a ‘tie in’. Teachers in Norway, for example, receive a salary premium for working in high-vacancy schools, but lose this once they move to a low-vacancy school.
In England, the Government has tried all sorts of gimmicks to boost teacher recruitment and retention.
Back in Nicky Morgan’s days as Education Secretary, we had the National Teaching Service. The idea was to pay 1,500 ‘elite’ teachers more money to work in under-performing schools. Just 24 people went for it before the scheme was ditched.
