Sit Down and Shut Up

It must be getting tough in British schools. When a teacher is absent, instead of turning to a substitute teacher, schools are opting for bouncers, prison officers and ex-soldiers.

Classroom supervisors with law enforcement backgrounds are hired for "crowd control."

One North London secondary school employed two permanent teacher stand-ins through an agency for professional doormen.

Selected because they were 'stern and loud' the bouncers were checked for criminal records but given no training. One was soon dismissed for breaching school disciplinary codes himself.

This from the London Daily Mail:

...A recruitment agency operating in the West Midlands area is advertising for 'hard core' classroom supervisors who can 'control the kids in schools'.

The market for supply teachers is rapidly shrinking as schools take on cheaper stand-ins who can keep order while pupils work on preprepared assignments. Instead of using supply teachers, which can cost £200 a day, equivalent to nearly £40,000-a-year, schools increasingly employ cover supervisors who are often paid less than £20,000, it was claimed...