Can I Sack Teacher?

Episode image for Can I Sack Teacher?

Duration: 30 minutes

In the last twenty years fewer than twenty teachers have been struck off for incompetence in the whole of the UK. That is despite the fact that education experts put the figure of bad and failing teachers closer to 15,000.

With new research showing that the standard of your teacher is the most important factor to a child's educational attainment in a school, we ask why so many bad teachers are being allowed to teach.

Talking to parents, head teachers and school watchdogs, Panorama reveals the shocking effects that bad teachers are having on our children and uncovers the loophole that could allow struck-off teachers back into our classrooms.

  • Incompetent teachers 'being recycled' by head teachers

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    Read more on Panorama's investigation
  • Which teachers were top of your class?

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    It's back to school for Panorama as we to talk Grange Hill's Lee MacDonald and television presenters Gail Porter and Kaye Adams about the teachers they remember the most - both the good and the bad.

  • Charting the impact of bad teachers

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    Just how big an impact can an incompetent teacher have on their pupils' grades?
    Researchers at Bristol University have carried out the first comprehensive examination in the UK into how a teacher's performance affects their pupils.
    Panorama's Samantha Poling caught up with Simon Burgess to discuss his surprising findings.

  • Bad teachers: Doing the maths

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    Panorama's Sam Poling has discovered that in the past 40 years, just 18 teachers have been struck-off for incompetence and asks the question, what is being done to deal with teachers who are not up to the job?

  • Join the debate on Can I Sack Teacher?

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  • Clarification: Can I Sack Teacher?

    Clarification: Can I Sack Teacher?

    Clarification: Can I Sack Teacher?
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Credits

Presenter
Jeremy Vine
Reporter
Sam Poling
Producer
Stephen Magee
Executive Producer
Marcus Ryder

Broadcasts

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