Inspectors to single out poor teachers

Individual teachers could be picked out for criticism or praise on their lessons and on how well their pupils are performing under a new, slimmed-down school inspection system to be announced tomorrow.

Schools will also be judged on the amount of homework they set, even for the youngest pupils, and will be expected to account for how they are using the free time gained from the cut in the content of the National Curriculum.

But teachers' leaders fear the framework could also back up a pledge by John Major last month that inspectors should name a school's weakest or strongest staff. In the past, judgements have been made on school departments rather than on individuals.

Officials say details of the Prime Minister's scheme are still under discussion, but leaked draft guidance on the new inspection framework says teachers will be judged on how well they know their subjects, whether their lessons are well matched to the curriculum, whether their pupils are well-motivated and whether they are able to raise expectations. They will also be expected to show that they are using resources efficiently and assessing pupils' progress properly.

Last week, Chris Woodhead, the chief inspector of schools, was attacked for announcing complete inspections of two London boroughs on the eve of the Conservative Party conference. Now teachers' leaders have complained that John Major's plans were not discussed during the consultation period on the new inspection measures. They say the moves will intensify opposition to an already unpopular inspection system.

Tomorrow's announcement is designed mainly to allow inspectors to concentrate on literacy and numeracy, and cut down on unnecessary paperwork.

Further changes to the privatised school inspection system - under which all secondary schools will be visited by 1997 and primary schools by 1998 - are also under discussion. Plans expected to be complete by the end of this year could mean that good schools will wait six years before their next inspection while weaker schools will be revisited after two.

Plans to allow schools to evaluate their own progress, monitored by inspectors, now seem to have stalled.

John Dunford, president of the Secondary Heads Association and a member of Ofsted's consultation group on inspections, said that it had never discussed allowing inspectors to judge individual teachers.

However, he added that the new framework's emphasis on teaching and learning could strengthen the Prime Minister's plans, and that this would be bound to prove harmful. Schools could only be improved with the co-operation of everyone in them, he argued.

"It does not seem helpful to have a model of inspection which is seen to be hostile to the individual," he said.

"All that will happen is that individuals will tighten ranks to fight off this enemy."