Performance management results in high performers feeling valued

Dr Dick Whitcutt

But the findings were dismissed by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) as contradicting the views of teaching professionals and experts.

Speaking to BBC News Online, the director of Industry in Education, Dr Dick Whitcutt said teachers should earn the same as a middle professional in industry, but must be prepared to accept performance appraisals.

"Performance management results in high performers feeling valued and this fact almost universally outweighs the disadvantages of some poorer performers preferring a uniform system of reward.

"I cannot imagine a better outcome from a management system than one that makes the best performers feel valued, particularly in a profession which relies totally on the performance of its staff," Dr Whitcutt said.

Head teachers, who are paid as managers, must behave as such and sell the system to their staff, he added.

Contradiction

The report comes as the Trades Union Congress (TUC) backed the concerns of teaching unions and urged the government to drop its plans for performance related pay.

Speaking at the TUC annual conference in Glasgow, NUT leader Doug McAvoy said: "Opposition to payment by results continues unabated."

"The government has failed to recognise that young people are deterred from coming into education and that performance-related pay strengthens their refusal to consider education as a career for the future."

A spokesperson for the NUT told BBC News Online the Industry in Education report contradicted research commissioned by the union which found that performance-related pay in education would not work.