More effort must also be made to attract ethnic minorities into teaching.

The MPs found no evidence of general recruitment problems but admitted specific schools do have difficulties.

Because extra pay is seen as unpopular to keep people in teaching they recommend that alternative rewards are explored.

However the House of Commons education select committee argue that, "where there are persistent problems of recruitment, it is surely right, in the interests of children's education, that financial incentives are available to attract teachers."

Should teachers get paid more to work in tough schools? Can you suggest any alternative rewards?

This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

The following comments reflect the balance of opinion we have received so far:

SUGGEST A DEBATE This topic was suggested by Ali in New Zealand Should some teachers get paid more than others? Surely all teachers should be of the same standard? Send us your suggestions for Have Your Say debates

My partner works in a centre for excluded kids. She is never the only adult in the room and each class has a panic button. She gets no extra pay but can be put through verbal and emotional abuse all day. She is a very good teacher and always says that she may be their last hope. You can imagine what my thoughts are especially when they are rewarded for turning up for lessons! She always defends her job to me. She doesn't expect extra pay but I'll say this - she deserves every minute of her time off during the holidays!!
Dave, Lytham, Lancs

People don't go into teaching for the money - that much should be pretty obvious by now. Give teachers the power to exclude and expel disruptive and violent children without knowing full well that whatever they have done they'll get reinstated on appeal. People whose first motive is money are more likely to go into the City than teaching.
Dave Tankard, UK

You've already got loads of "Super Teachers" it's just that they're strangled by ridiculous amounts of paperwork imposed by 'experts' in ivory towers. I'm sure that many of the existing teachers could easily cope in tough schools if the existing, unnecessary workload was reduced - particularly the planning that they have to do outside "office hours" e.g. weekends!
Yes, teachers are underpaid but it's the loss of "home life" that really puts people off or causes them to quit (how many hours in a day does Charles Clarke think there is?). Teaching should be a rewarding career and achieving results in a tough school would bring its own set of emotional/psychological rewards but they would be nullified by the bureaucracy that surrounds teaching.
Rich, Swindon, UK

Surely the real question is - why are there tough schools? Shouldn't we be looking at the root problem - kids behaviour - not giving our overworked teachers even more to deal with?
Louise, Lincoln, UK

Headmasters can't ban troublesome pupils, they are forced to take them back. Teachers can't enforce any sort of verbal or physical discipline or they face legal action from the local council and/or the parents...so what do you expect? Education is key to improving the life of those at the bottom of the pile, but the current system means those who want to learn are prevented from doing so by an unmanageable few. Bring back "special schools" for those that won't stick to the rules, let those who want to learn do so in peace. Going to school should be enforced, going to your local school should be a privilege you earn.
John R Smith, UK

Cash handouts might be getting more people in but they aren't staying. Three to four years is the usual time for giving up the unequal struggle against uncontrollable children, bureaucracy and the blame culture. I should add that the taking on of unqualified persons to supervise classes rather than paying for supply teachers doesn't quite tally with the quoted aim of having all children taught by properly qualified teachers. Finally, when I qualified (1980) you got a Social Priority Allowance as recognition that teaching in Hell-hole is harder than a leafy-lane Grammar.
Diane, Leeds, UK

So, in a bad school you pay more to get better teachers. So, in theory, the school improves. Do you then cut the teachers' salaries? Smaller schools and classes would help a lot - we all know that, but perhaps are unwilling to pay for it?
JC, Hampshire, UK

Yes, and it should be called "danger money". I have no idea why anyone would want to teach an aggressive, anti-social, selfish lot - and that's just the parents!!
Graeme, UK

At the root of the teacher shortage is the colossal wastage of newly trained teachers Barry P, Havant, England

At the root of the teacher shortage is the colossal wastage of newly trained teachers. When 50% of new teachers leave within a short time of graduating it is no wonder that schools cannot recruit. Perhaps requiring an employed gap year between school and teacher training would ensure that only dedicated people go for training, couple that with a sensible contract system for teachers, with local pay structures and there is a slight chance that the problem could be addressed.
Barry P, Havant, England

Where are we going to find these "Super teachers" then? Its hard enough to find a mediocre one!
Danny, UK

Teachers should be paid more, full stop. If you want to attract the best there needs to be more financial incentive - otherwise you're left with a 'those who can't' bunch.
Wendy, UK

We need to treat teachers with less mawkish platitudes and view them as decent intelligent adult role models Chris G, Cambridge UK

We have a funny relationship with teachers in this country. On the one hand we praise their efforts and comment on what wonderful people they are. On the other we pay less than other professions and afford them less real respect. Let them provide their own curriculum, and asses progress until GCSE with out government intervention, they are trained professionals after all. As a society we need to treat teachers with less mawkish platitudes and view them as decent intelligent adult role models. If society can see them this way so will the kids. And yes a more inclusive profession with more minorities, not to mention men, would help greatly.
Chris G, Cambridge UK

With some notable exceptions, most teachers only work part time anyway - you try organising a governors meeting during the school holidays! Get the lot of them to do a proper job and the problem will disappear. They are not overpaid as part timers go.
Divina, London, UK

I must point out the errors made by Divina of London. My Sister-in-Law is a teacher and, during the summer holidays, she was not off work but at home marking pupils work and setting up the schedule for the Autumn season. How Davina can say teachers only work part time is incorrect. Just because a teacher is not in the school does not mean they are not working hard!!
Darren, Essex, UK

So, Divina, most teachers work part time do they? Good opportunity to dig out the old cliche and give it a good dust down. My wife is a teacher and so are a number of her friends. While you and I relax of an evening and weekend, she will be surfing the internet for resources, or marking books, or doing reports, or attending parents evenings, shall I go on? She spent the weekend making Carrot Fudge, to give the kids a sample of what it was like during the war and being on rations. Hour for hour, she works pretty much the same as I do, just at different times. Try getting a day off to 'let the plumber in' or go to the doctors as a teacher, it doesn't happen. As for comments about organising governors meeting, she will be at a governors meeting tomorrow night, so thats an 8am start and a 9.30 pm finish (most governors love the sound of their own voices!). Part time? Get real!
Mike, Gloucester

The education of children is a priceless commodity that must always be pursued. If higher pay gets us that then so be it.
Neil D, Birmingham, UK

Improving discipline in these challenging schools also needs addressing Julia, London, UK

Saying that all teachers should be paid the same is not realistic. Faced with the choice of working in a school with good results with few behaviour problems and a school with poor results and challenging pupils, then most teachers would opt for the former. No schools are easy to work in, but a challenging school is a uniquely difficult mixture of low pupil motivation and poor behaviour, staff and pupil demoralisation, and often a lack of resources. Why shouldn't teachers be paid more to work in these environments? Improving discipline in these challenging schools also needs addressing, but this can not be done until schools have the staff (and staff stability) to deal with this huge problem in a systematic and consistent manner.
Julia, London, UK

If parents controlled their brats in the first place, we wouldn't have challenging schools.
Rob Watson, Winchester, Hampshire

I began to train as a teacher, but left as I realised that the stupid amount of paper work and red tape that is involved keeps you away from actual teaching. An increase in wages is well over due for all teachers, they have a job that few envy. Also, the lack of discipline needs to be addressed, teachers need more powers for unruly students.
Heather, West Yorkshire, UK

I have a wife and three step-children to help support so there was no choice to make Graham Hillman, Cambridge

After 18 months, I recently left an otherwise enjoyable position as a Technology Instructor in a local secondary school. I have an Engineering HNC, 12 years industry experience and a commercial training qualification. Despite the fact that I was already teaching solo (yet unqualified?) with classes of 25+, I was faced with a choice of a low salary for three years as a trainee teacher to obtain a degree and qualified teacher status, or return to an industry position, doubling my salary and collecting other benefits along the way. I have a wife and three step-children to help support so there was no choice to make. It's about time that successive governments recognised that in times of expertise shortage you have to look at your entry criteria whilst maintaining high standards. It's called market forces in the commercial world. There is huge bureaucracy and systemic waste happening in most schools and yet we can even get the basics right. If schools were businesses, they would all have gone bust by now!
Graham Hillman, Cambridge, England

Good teachers will safe guard the UK's future - pay teachers well and levels will rise.
Graeme Findlay, London

We don't need "super" teachers, we need "super" schools, by that I mean schools for kids who won't/can't behave where they can get special attention to whatever the problem is with them. Mainstream schools should be allowed to expel unruly pupils and especially those who make malicious allegations more easily than at present. They should then be sent to a super school to be sorted out.
Darren, Manchester, UK

All the teachers I know complain of disruptive pupils with the legal system heavily weighted in favour of the troublemakers. This isn't going to go away with a quick fix; it is a long term problem that needs a properly thought through solution.
Bill, UK

I think there should be incentives or more effective teachers, why should their pay not reflect their work? After all, a government/country investing in a child's education is investing not just in their country's but also the world's future, how else is the human mind supposed to evolve without a good standard of education, starting at an early age?
Ed, North West London

Finance is one incentive, but what about giving teachers more power over unruly pupils and reducing class sizes to make the job less stressful?
Gareth Williams, Cardiff

Teachers should get more pay full stop! Earning between �13 and �16K a year to educate, advance and inspire the next generation is pitiful. Teachers are one of the most important resources in our society and they're paid less than secretaries and receptionists. They have an extremely difficult and time-consuming job and it's about time they were paid for their worth!
R Fraser, London, UK

If you're after the pay you'd be in the wrong job with teaching, no matter what the salary Glenn H, Matlock

I barely see my wife who's a deputy head in a poor area. She regularly starts at 7.00am and finishes at 6.00pm and most of what she has to deal with would make the strongest people flinch. If you're after the pay you'd be in the wrong job with teaching, no matter what the salary.
Glenn H, Matlock

Teaching should be no different to any other profession which is suffering from a recruitment problem. If there are two positions available, one in a leafy suburb and the other in an inner city with a poor reputation, most of the applicants are going to want the one in the suburb. This means that the perceived "better" school gets the choice of the applicants and therefore the better teachers. The inner city school has nothing to attract quality teachers, and allowing then to offer higher salaries will help to alleviate this.
Mike, Cheltenham, UK

One word: Discipline! It's not just "super" teachers that schools need. Without clear disciplinary measures to help tackle unruly behaviour in schools, teachers will continue to leave the profession. It might also help if the government stopped trying to recruit new graduates to train as teachers - I can't be the only person who would love to teach but has absolutely no wish to go to university myself. Twenty one years work experience used to speak for itself.
Pennie Forthem, Uckfield, Sussex, UK

Rubbish, the government that decided in its infinite wisdom to abolish corporal punishment is the common denominator here. Pupils know that they can misbehave with the full knowledge that no physical punishment will be administered. The system has only got itself to blame. Bring back corporal punishment and things will get better.
Steve Pennell, Burnley, UK