Spondon....
I didn't say failure was never the teacher's fault. No one is saying that. Useless teachers need to be prevented from doing harm through bad practice, poor subject knowledge, or neglectful classroom management.
Cushier number than other part of employment? Perhaps, but not if you consider like-for-like. To be a teacher, you need good qualifications yourself, a degree, and a postgraduate qualification. You then need to prove your abilities time and time again through continuous performance management from line managers. If you were to pass through all these hoops in most private sector equivalents, you'd be laughing all the way to the bank. Instead, you're in a meeting becuase the kid with a 30% attendnace rate didn't pass the exam.
Part of the argument on here is caused by there being no measurable for education. Tax money goes to teachers to provide an educational experience for children; it does not go to provide them with a set of qualifications regardless of their effort (or lack thereof) or talent, or attitude, etc. Yet, pass rates are all important now.
To torture a metaphor, lets turn schools into supermarkets. A supermarket exists to facilitiate people in the consumption of products they require. It does not exist to ensure that such consumption is performed regardles sof the ability or willingness of the customer to pay.
If a kid makes it through 10 years of school and still cannot read or write - can you claim all ten years of teachers have individually failed that student, or is this starting to look in part like their fault?
Perhaps there is a generational issue here. Those whose school days were teachers yelling and caning and no help for you if you simply didnt' understand. That was bad. Now its too far the other way - teachers essentially having to beg kids to do the bare minimum just so the teacdher doesn't look bad.
Your argument that soldiers are paid badly is surely an argument for improving the pay of soldiers, not for reducing everyoneelse's pay to similar poor levels? With more pay, I would spend more in my local economy, but apparently that is only a good thing when millionaire investors do it (according to current conservative economic arguments).
