Teachers should not get tenure - Essay Example

Teachers should not get tenure Tenure serves as job security for teachers; they need job security to perform. However, granting tenure to teachers has proved to be the main reason for complacency that has affected the education sector. In the past, tenure was about evaluating the effectiveness of teachers before granting permanent positions. In the contemporary world, tenure has evolved to a “job for life” guarantee. Teachers on tenure are impossible to fire. In such cases, effectiveness is compromised due to the reduced concern about performance.

For example, approximately one out of 500 teachers is fired in major cities due to poor performance. In New York, only ninety out of 70,000 teachers lost their jobs between 2007 and 2010 for poor performance. Such statistics are attributable to tenure. Therefore, tenure and performance generate a cause-and-effect relationship towards the performance of students. In addition, the process for awarding tenure is not as thorough as it used to be. Nowadays, tenure is granted depending on the time that a teacher has been in service.

This means that all teachers will be awarded tenure after serving for a particular period. For example, in the United States, most states require a minimum of three years before a teacher qualifies for tenure. This means that all K-12 teachers receive tenure regardless of whether they have qualified or not. Teachers should not get tenure to ensure that job performance is not compromised for “job for life.” It will be easier to relieve ineffective teachers their duties if tenure is not awarded.

The education sector will improve in the long-run if teachers are not granted tenure.