'MoT' checks to root out poor teachers

Teachers would undergo MoT-style checks under proposals being considered by Labour to boost standards in schools.

Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham believes a new "licensing" system could help to root out failing teachers.

The checks, every five years, would be billed as a "revalidation" system that would mirror checks being introduced for doctors.

The General Teaching Council for England has estimated there are 17,000 "substandard" teachers, but only 18 teachers have been struck off for incompetence in the past 40 years, according to the BBC's Panorama.

Mr Burnham also believes that some young people not set to go to university are "losing hope" at school because other future education and career paths are poorly promoted.

He is proposing a Ucas style-clearing system for apprenticeships. "We have not done anything like enough to help and focus on the more than 50 per cent of young people who are not likely to go to university," he told a fringe meeting.

"The political debate about education has focused, I would not say exclusively but massively, on the university route.

"It has not looked at the other side of the equation - at how to equip these young people, give them solid qualifications, opportunities to go into the world of work and make a success of themselves."