3.8 Teacher accountability

3.8.1 Accountability, performance and quality

The principle that teachers are accountable for their performance and the quality of their teaching is key to ensuring a high status of the teaching profession and enhancing learning. The reciprocal principle is that education systems should be accountable to teachers, in terms of providing effective support and acceptable working conditions. This is an important point, as teachers do not have control over many of the factors affecting their own performance and that of their students. While a teacher policy should emphasize accountability, this should be part of a wider policy to improve teaching and education. It is essential that public and political calls for teacher accountability do not translate into blaming teachers for all of the problems in an education system.