Letter: The right teachers

Sir: Performance-related pay may work in commerce, where success is measured in terms of profit and share price. In education (leading article, 24 September) what matters is individual pupil performance, not just the GCSE, A-level or Sats score for the school.

My principal concern is that, although some high-fliers may gain enhanced pay under the new system, they may not be teaching my children, but some other lucky parents' child. The expectation of parents is that every teacher should be hard-working and successful. The only way to achieve this is for there to be strong competition for every teacher's post. This is certainly not the case now. Able people should be queueing from industry to do these vital jobs.

Unless all teachers can expect to receive the enhanced pay by hard work and ability, these reforms are going to be too little too slowly.

Dr A M SCAMMELL

Lincoln