On Friday, I was interviewed by BBC WM radio about Michael Gove’s proposals to make it easier to dismiss under-performing teachers, writes education blogger Kit Field.

Beforehand I watched Michael Gove being interviewed himself on BBC’s Breakfast TV. One or two of the things he said need to be highlighted:

1) We have the best generation of new teachers ever.

2) The nine-week dismissal period (reduced from 24) would only be invoked if all other measures to address under-performance have been exhausted

One presumes firstly that this concept of underperformance is rare and also that the ‘other measures’ would involve the identification of weaknesses, agreeing of target for improvement, the provision of support, and the assessment of the outcomes.

I wonder how long it is expected that this will take? Clearly we want our children to get the best possible teaching – and it seems it is the best ever already.

Incidents of sub-standard teaching are not very common. Members of the public phoning into Radio 5 Live on Friday were relating stories of inspirational teachers, although one or two did mention some incidents to illustrate what they thought was poor teaching. The incidents related were quite shocking, but were not examples of under-performance. In fact they represented examples of gross misconduct. There are already procedures in place to remove teachers on the grounds of gross misconduct.

There are also defined standards, which all teachers must not only meet, but they must demonstrate that they have met them. There is a code of conduct in place, which guides practice.

The General Teaching Council had the power to ‘de-register teachers’ (powers being passed onto the new teaching agency), and teachers are CRB checked before and during their careers. Teachers are ‘performance managed’ and are observed for performance management purposes three times per year. Many engage in team teaching and mutual, peer observation for developmental purposes in addition.

The standards teachers have to attain are very demanding, and broad reaching. We all know teachers need developed subject knowledge, an understanding of how the subject is and can be learnt, an ability to manage classrooms, and to manage behaviour, an appreciation of individual pupil needs, lesson planning skills, and the list goes on.

Very few teachers would fall below standard across the board, and very few can excel at all of them all the time. Labelling teacher as ‘failing’or as I heard on the radio, as ‘atrocious’ is ridiculous. Any teacher will be able to cite tomes when they were not at their best, and a measure of a good teacher is how the recover from these moments. By recover, I mean make sure learning takes place.

The best teachers focus on learners not themselves. By doing so they cannot always operate at outstanding levels – part of the learning successes are dependent upon other factors (the learners themselves, family, friends, current events – even the weather)

I have to ask why Michael Gove is introducing these new measures. If in fact the new measures are introduced for under-performance, before all other measures have been exhausted, there would be interesting consequences. Dismissed teachers could not be replaced at speed, and the pupils would have ‘supply teachers’ covering their lessons.

Supply teachers are unlikely to be specialists in the subject areas being taught – and therefore pupils would continue with sub-standard teaching! Heads may prefer to use resources to support and develop teachers whom they, at least at one time, valued and respected.

So the devil will be in the detail. I would not want to suggest that the proposals open the way for victimisation of any teacher, as I have full respect for the professionalism of head teachers. However, let’s be sure that everyone is protected and supported, with children being the first priority and teachers after that.