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NASUWT Annual Conference ICC Birmingham

If every member of both NASUWT and NUT (representing some 85% of the teaching workforce) stood up for acceptable pensions, pay and working conditions, this country will be ever likely to have an awe-inspiring first-class state education system.  Without teachers, school doesn’t exist.  With government measures threatening the future of our education system, it’s hardly surprising that union membership has rapidly grown in recent months.

Teachers do not want to take action.  They have absolutely no other way to stand up for standards as the ruthless, unelected government refuses to negotiate.  The government campaign has resulted in teachers being publicly vilified, violated and pounded owing to punitive legislation.  Dig deeper and you’ll understand the real issues that could potentially destroy education standards.  Teachers are making a stand for long-term teaching standards.  Rest assured, there is no chance of striking during the all important exams, though it will be essential to get a message across, loud and clear, that we will not tolerate abuse, and wish for the professional status of teachers to be upheld.

Some of the issues for discussion concerned proposed government changes:

Pensions: Pay more, work longer, get less.   We can assume from the last we were allowed know, that the TPS (teachers’ pension scheme) is paying out LESS than what people pay in, making the TPS perfectly viable.  It’s no surprise that we are no-longer allowed to know what’s in the pot.  Having to pay in more is effectively a shameful stealth tax on teachers.  But the government not content on making teachers pay more, also impose a retirement age of 68.  Such changes will totally destroy progress with recruitment and retention.  Over a working career, teachers generally earn less than their counterparts in the private sector, and contrary to popular belief, work during the ‘holiday’ periods.  This is why a teacher pension is fairly good.  The stressful nature of teaching has the potential to force teachers into early retirement to poverty as they will not be able to draw their teachers’ pension, or death in service.  This cynical stealth tax can potentially saving millions.

This is now the second year of pay freezes, effectively significantly cutting pay owing to increases in the cost of living.  Teachers have fewer holidays than our merciless MPs, yet they are not taking cuts.  It’s one rule for them, and another for everyone else, designed simply to increase the gulf between rich and poor.  If I could be guaranteed a 37.5 hour week, then I would consider reduced holidays.  Such trade off has not been discussed.

Linking performance management and capability: Under new government proposals, I’m led to believe that teachers can be dismissed in just 7 weeks.  We’ve heard horror stories about older members of staff being bullied by senior staff through unjustified punitive lesson observations as they seek to replace staff with younger, less expensive teachers.  This can be avoided with existing established procedures.  Performance Management should be about constructive investment in teachers to make them outstanding, rather than destroying teacher moral.  According to comments of some from the conference, headteachers of schools with good morale are being asked what they are doing wrong.  They are encouraged to bully others to “improve standards”, ruling by fear.

Academies: The government has clearly cherry picked research to back academy ideology.  According to some,  schools have been falsely accused of failure to force them to change to an academy.  Some see the conversion as a waste of money, particularly when some schools in certain regions are now working together to recreate the same functions of former local authorities!  Those running academies are not governed by any ethical guidelines, paving the way for profiteering private companies to take over, at everyone else’s expense.  At least Mr Twigg (MP) proposes that academies should not be ran by profit-making companies.  The changes in education mirror the government’s plans for “selling off the NHS”.  This is not to say that all academies will turn out bad, they just have rights that are potentially open to abuse.

In another attack on teachers, it is proposed that those without QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) are allowed to teach in academies and free schools.  This effectively de-professionalises teaching, undermining the professional status of teachers.

Members from the Iraq Teachers’ Union joined us, and put some perspective on matters.  Their democratically appointed president, Mohsin Ali Nsaif, has been bribed to stand down in place of a government official and survived 3 assassination attempts.  One of his former colleagues who visited in 2008 was murdered.  The NASUWT will continue to highlight the abuse of unions in Iraq.

The NASUWT is about defending standards in education and “claiming back” the classroom.

http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/