NEWS
Call to ‘stop insulting the profession’
Teachers must be supported, not denigrated, the NASUWT has told a forum of parliamentarians and educationalists.
Dr Patrick Roach, the NASUWT’s Assistant General Secretary for Policy and Communications [left], addressed members of the Westminster Education Forum, which brings together MPs and civil servants with public organisations and industry representatives to share
ideas and shape policy making on education. Speaking on the topic ‘Morale and Recruitment – the
State of the Workforce’, Dr Roach called for an end to attacks on teacher quality, saying that the view peddled by some politicians that the profession is riddled with incompetent teachers was false and insulting to the profession.
“What is clear,” he said, “is that there has been a persistent failure to invest in the continuing development of teacher quality at all stages of teachers’ careers. “Investing in professional development is the means for raising teacher quality; not by denigrating the profession; not by restricting access to government - funded initial teacher training (ITT) only to those students who have previously graduated with a 2:2 or higher degree or who had the privilege of studying at an elite university; nor by accelerating the fast-track to the sack by diluting or removing the employment rights of teachers; but by creating the conditions in every school for confident professional practice and teacher agency to be nurtured, encouraged, and supported.” Dr Roach called for a contractual entitlement to high quality continuing professional development (CPD) to become a right for all teachers and stated that the new Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL) would help to achieve this aim.
An entitlement to CPD must also be at the heart of the Government’s new licence to practise plans, Dr Roach said, warning that teachers would not support the plans if they amounted to an ‘MOT for teachers’ or placed additional duties or responsibilities on them.
Rejection of GTCE fee hike:
Following strong representations from the NASUWT, the former Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, rejected a request from the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) for an 18% increase in its fee. The Union wrote to Ed Balls appealing for the request by the GTCE to be turned down on the basis that there was no justifiable reason for increasing the financial burden on teachers. The GTCE was seeking a £6 increase in its compulsory registration fee, which would have taken the amount payable by teachers from £33 to £39. The Minister has rejected the 18% demand and instead granted permission for an inflation-only increase in the fee. The NASUWT has consistently called for a review of the GTCE’s remit, arguing that it should focus on its regulatory function, rather than involving itself in projects that the NASUWT contends would merely duplicate work already being done by other bodies and add little value to the status or professional development of the profession. Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said: “In the current economic climate, schools, local authorities and all other organisations are having to review their expenditure. “For the GTCE to expect an 18% increase in its fee was, therefore, reckless and ill-conceived. “However, whether the fee increase is three pence or £3.50, the NASUWT has no doubt that the vast majority of teachers will continue to resent paying any increase to a body they feel serves no useful purpose.”
GTCE Code Campaign
The rejection of the fee increase follows the NASUWT’s recent high-profile petition against the General Teaching Council for England’s (GTCE’s) Code of Conduct and Practice.
The campaign underlined the opposition within the profession to the activities of the GTCE. Over 30,000 signatures were collected for the campaign against the Code, which the NASUWT has dismissed as unnecessary, vague and an unwarranted intrusion into teachers’ private lives. The NASUWT intends to write to the GTCE to inform them of the number of responses to the petition against its Code of Conduct and Practice and formally request its withdrawal. The NASUWT representatives on the GTCE Council will also continue to press for the Code to be withdrawn.
May 2010 Teaching Today 5
www.nasuwt.org.uk
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