The opinions expressed by John Blunt are not necessarily those of this newspaper

TEACHERS in East Lancashire are so disillusioned that they are quitting in droves, according to union chief Simon Jones.

Dear me, it must be those long hours, the poor pay and the rotten holidays - like the six weeks' break they're on now - that makes them feel so undervalued.

But, says Mr Jones, we ain't see nothing yet.

If the Government introduces performance-related pay in schools, teachers' morale - already so low, he says, that one he knows of is now training to be a midwife instead and another has gone to work in a bar abroad - will plummet even more and turn the staff shortage into a crisis.

His solution? Give all teachers a pay rise - presumably, a big one. The system should properly reward them, he says. Quite. And if it was to "properly reward" them so that it is fair, equitable and understandable, just as NUT national executive member Mr Jones demands, would it be living up to those ideals if it rewarded good and bad teachers alike?

Hardly. It would carry on maintaining the baleful mediocrity that we already have in education.

But why are teachers so scared of performance-related pay - when they have absolutely no need to be if they are doing their job well and properly?

After all, that's how millions of other workers are assessed.

And if the standards-raising effect is to drive the duffers out of the job and attract the gifted and willing into it, then Mr Jones' aim of teachers being properly rewarded will have been arrived at.

After all, the plodders and dead wood in the profession aren't owed a living, are they?

It would seem that Mr Jones thinks they are.

But, surely, if taxpayers are ploughing £19billion extra into education, have they not the right to expect better results - and a system to encourage them, too?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.