By Gavin Mackintosh-
Less than 20 % of teachers in the Uk find education watchdog, Ofsted trusted and reliable, according to the new findings of a survey published today. Just 18% of teachers say Ofsted is ‘trusted and reliable’
The annual teachers’ survey, which questioned over 1,000 teachers on their awareness and perceptions of Ofsted, was published today.
It found just 18 per cent of teachers agreed Ofsted acts as a reliable and trusted arbiter of schools, with 55 per cent disagreeing. This is also a huge drop on last year, when 35 per cent said Ofsted acts as a reliable and trusted arbiter, with only 51 per cent disagreeing.
The findings also concluded that teachers who have been recently inspected were less likely to disagree with the statement than those who were inspected one to two years ago.
30% of teachers said that Ofsted acts independently of government. Just 19 per cent of teachers agreed with this statement this year, compared to 30 per cent of teachers in 2018.
The proportion of teachers who considered the inspectorate as a force for improvement in education also fell from 24 per cent concurring with the statement and 49 per cent dissenting last year to 20 per cent concurring and 56 per cent dissenting this year.Just 27 per cent said inspections help individual schools improve, compared with 31 per cent last year.
Like last year, half of all teachers said that Ofsted inspections mean doing extra and unnecessary work. However, the proportion of teachers who felt the final judgement reached by Ofsted was fair and accurate has also remained stable at 61 per cent.
Seven in 10 said their last inspection was pretty much in line with what was expected, while half (52 per cent) said the inspection team was ‘professional but detached’.
The online YouGov survey was conducted with Ofsted and carried out among teachers between March 20 and April 10 this year. The number of teachers surveyed were 1,007 teachers; 397 teachers working in primary schools and 610 teachers from secondary schools.
The inspectorate said the figures were weighted and were representative of all teachers in England by their age, gender, school type and phase.