Sitting in the department meeting, lists of issues are being fired at you from the usual agenda. Your colleagues’ eyes are rolling, arms crossed and lips pursed in distaste at the never-ending problems. You are sweating! Your cheeks burn and your hands tingle as you choke back the solution you think just-might-work. You can barely hear the rest of the points as you run over and over in your mind, how you might disrupt this meeting with the solution that is buzzing to be heard. If you could just bring yourself to lay the creative idea on the table… or is it a stupid idea? No matter, the meeting is over. It’s just another idea that you didn’t dare share.

Think about what brought you into teaching in the first place. The opportunity to continue to work with / learn more about your specialist subject, and to communicate their enthusiasm for this subject to others, may be high up on the list of reasons. For those in the primary sector, the chance to teach a range of subjects, and to spend time in the company of younger children, may feature strongly. We may want to build relationships, to make a difference to people’s lives – something which doesn’t really feature in a number of professions. We may see schools as places where we will continue to learn and to stretch ourselves; there will be variety and the opportunity for a wide range of experiences within and beyond the classroom.

Education Secretary Michael Gove wants to change the primary and secondary school curriculums in England.

He has said he wants pupils to be taught a "core knowledge" of facts and figures. He wants them to be able to recite their times tables, punctuate a sentence correctly and list capitals of the world.

The education systems in Hong Kong, Finland, and South Korea are often lauded as among the best in the world, scoring highly in international league tables.

Here academics suggest reasons why the state-run education system in these countries is top of the class.

Photo credit: Wootang01