The New Statesman

This is a funny, moving and worrying memoir. It follows Francis Gilbert's experiences as he goes through teacher training and takes up his first job at an inner-city comprehensive. The story is one of disorder, low achievement, and disillusioned and burnt-out teachers, mixed with flashes of affection for the children and commitment from some of the teachers.

Having spent a week last September in a similar school, as part of the BBC series My Life in the Real World, I was left with the same sense of affection for the children and respect for many of the teachers, but deep concern about the way in which such respect has been undermined by successive governments.

Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools under Tory and then Labour governments, told us repeatedly that there were large numbers of inadequate teachers. He also helped put in place a national curriculum which ensured that teachers operate in the straitjacket of an academically biased curriculum, which squeezes out the flexibility needed to reach out to children with other talents. The Office for Standards in Education tells teachers exactly how they should teach. The curriculum is dominated by an intolerable burden of tests that determine where schools come in the league tables. And this means that schools catering for less privileged neighbourhoods do less well, and thus face more Ofsted inspections and bureaucracy - which in turn undermines teacher morale.

On a visit to Japan some time ago, I met a British man, married to a Japanese woman, whose children had spent time in both education systems. He was struck by the way in which the systems were changing places. Japan had become concerned that its rigid, competitive, exam-driven system had been producing inflexible and uncreative young people who were unable to help Japan adapt to a changing world. The Japanese had therefore studied alternative models across the world, and had taken much interest in the British system. But just at the same time, Britain was moving to an obsession with testing, league tables and a rigid national curriculum, which looked increasingly like the system that was thought to have failed Japan.

I am also conscious that many of the dedicated teachers I know are giving up teaching and retiring early. I have read of a Department for Education and Skills study showing that half of all British teachers considered leaving the profession last year. I fear that the control-freakery, targets and bureaucracy which are the current model of public sector reform risk leaving the country denuded of good teachers.

One of my sisters now lives in Cape Town and tells me that, when we were recruiting abroad because of our teacher shortages, many South African teachers who had previously worked in the townships took up the opportunity to work in Britain. When they returned to South Africa, there was a flurry of articles and discussions about how difficult it was to teach in Britain because pupils had so little respect for their teachers. Similarly, it is now widely recognised that British schools are much more disorderly than those elsewhere in Europe.

I'm a Teacher, Get Me Out of Here! is funny and poignant, but is also a cry of pain. It should be compulsory reading for successive secretaries of state and all senior staff at the DfES. I am afraid that we are storing up serious trouble in our schools.