The UK’s Conservatives want to create an elite army of top teachers.

Conservative leader David Cameron has announced a draft manifesto for the UK’s education system – creating an army of elite teachers. But what exactly makes a good teacher?

Speaking at Walworth Academy school in South London today, the Tory leader was passionate about his party’s proposals for a real shake-up of the education system – namely its recruitment ethos and processes.

He stated that a Tory government would make it easier for “high flying professionals” to move into teaching, warning that red tape is holding many career-changers off.

Speaking alongside education spokesman Michael Gove, he said: “If you’re a twenty-something or thirty-something who has made it in another career but fancy giving teaching a go, the bureaucratic-odds are stacked against you.”

Countries such as Finland, Singapore and South Korea have created the best education systems in the world by making teaching a “high prestige profession” and being “brazenly elitist”, Mr Cameron said.

He will also renew promises to axe state-funded teacher training for people with third-class degrees, pay off the student loans of those with science and maths qualifications and send more of the best candidates into inner-city schools.

Currently in the UK, four in ten children leave primary school unable to read, write and add up properly. Half of pupils do not get five good GCSEs including English and maths, and the country is also slipping down the world league tables in maths and science.

It is certainly true that great teachers are both memorable and instrumental in a child’s development, but is there something in Cameron’s manifesto that disregards the fact that high-achieving graduates may not always make for the best teachers.

At the moment, taxpayers are in fact shelling out for graduates to train as teachers who then either don’t enter the profession at all, or simply leave after a few years.  It was reported at the beginning of this month that 25,000 teachers who qualified since 2000 have never entered a classroom; furthermore there are just over 400,000 fully trained teachers under the age of 60 who are no longer teaching. These statistics, from the Association of Teachers, are quite shocking indeed, but also emphasise that there are reasons why these qualified professionals are choosing to desert ranks.

Largely these reasons have clear solutions, such as raising the profile of teaching as a “noble profession”, reducing bureaucracy across the board, and letting schools take more control. Cameron noted: “…Any plan to elevate the status of teaching in our country must also include giving them the powers and protections they need to keep order.”

Teachers should not have to face abuse or any kind of violence, but the sad truth is that in some areas they may have to do exactly this on a daily basis. But that is exactly why teachers and headteachers must be able to wield the authority to discipline children who need a firmer hand, and have the final say over expulsions.

Cameron’s plans are attractive, and could net a number of young professionals who are looking for a job that inspires and develops children’s minds, but also one that offers a decent salary, benefits, security, and above all, management and leadership opportunities. Teach First, the scheme for high-level graduates that started in London, has been incredibly successful. Cameron wants to create “Teach Now” – a new programme created for such young professionals – but without the red tape and lengthy out-of-school training.

Many former City bankers, solicitors and the like are already making the switch to teaching. The government’s Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), responsible for teacher training, says about 70% of inquiries about becoming teachers now come from professionals considering a career switch.

But what we need is a good range of teachers – I’m not sure that a school full of ex-City workers is the best formula – but a good selection of people from the arts, public services, industry, non-profit and business world would suffice rather nicely.

In fact, let’s get the Tories voted in now so I can sign up.