When is motivation bribery?
One of the unusual outcomes of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind policy has been a change in the way US schools reward students for good exam results and attendance. Previously students might hope to win small incentives like, but now they can expect everything from computers and mobile telephones to cars and large cash prizes.
Whether these incentives have much impact on truancy is the subject of much debate, but with so many ‘new traditions’ such as school graduations being imported from the US to the UK, we may well see similar prizes offered to UK students and teachers.
The Department for Work and Pensions is already trialling a system of rewards to reduce the average number of sick days to 7.5 from 11.3 days per civil servant per year. If successful this will soon be seen at the DfES because Secretary of State Ruth Kelly, in her previous role as Cabinet Secretary, was the minister responsible for commissioning a report by Aon Limited that looked at ways of reducing sickness absence.
Rewards and bonuses are not the only tools the government is considering, but in the current political climate are probably more likely to gain parental and union acceptance than more draconian measures like fines or the removal of the right for civil servants to self-certify sick absences of up to five days.