§ 11. Mr. Greg Knightasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will now introduce legislation to provide for a system of regular appraisal for teachers and promotion based upon such appraisal.
§ Sir Keith JosephThe Government will be taking an early opportunity to seek the power to require local education authorities regularly to appraise the performance of their teachers. I would like to see more good teachers promoted to higher scales and those promotion decisions put onto the more consistent and reliable basis facilitated by an appraisal system.
§ 51. Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what progress he is making with his plans to improve the quality and the career structure of teachers.
§ 53. Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what progress there has been towards relating teachers' pay and promotion to merit and performance.
§ Sir Keith JosephI have had some discussions with the local authority associations on my letter of 21 May which set out the Government's proposals for making progress506W towards these objectives. I have also discussed some of the issues arising with the Assistant Masters' and Mistresses' Association, the National Association of Headteachers and the Secondary Heads Association. I shall continue to urge the parties to negotiate on these proposals which would enable local authorities to offer substantially improved career and promotion prospects based on consideration of all the relevant factors such as teachers' qualifications, skills and experience, the quality of the work done and the demands of particular teaching posts and the difficulty of filling them.