NUT calls for Government Target Setting in Education to end

Commenting on thePublic Administration Committees report on Public Service Targets, DougMcAvoy, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said:

The Governmentsobsession with target setting and performance tables has been most damaging ineducation. Schools have been forced tojump to impossible national targets and to put on the back burner much that isvaluable for childrens learning.

This report mustsignal the end of bureaucrats in government plucking arbitrary targets out ofthe air and expecting everyone else to take the consequences.

The Government has torealise that targets in the public services can often turn success andimprovement into failure. Indeed itshoots itself in the foot every time a national target is not achieved.

I support the SelectCommittees conclusions that public sector workers must be involved in settingof realistic objectives. The authors ofany White Paper must understand, what the day-to-day demands of teaching areactually like. A need for such anunderstanding of reality is implied by the Select Committee which called for aWhite Paper.

EN D S pr.57/03

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