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NEWS


Accountability call as test pilot ends

The NASUWT has once again urged the Government to review the school accountability system following the announcement that the piloting of single level tests in England is to end.

Single level tests have been piloted since 2007 by ten local authorities. They took a ‘stage not age’ approach to assessment, enabling teachers to decide when to enter Key Stage 2 pupils for the tests in English and maths.

Making the announcement, Schools Minister Nick Gibb pledged the Government’s continuing commitment to external testing and stated that the evidence gathered from the pilot projects would feed into the forthcoming review of primary education.

The NASUWT called on the Government to take the opportunity presented by the primary review to re-examine the accountability system, arguing that while the Union has no objection to external testing, it has serious concerns about the use to which the test results are put.

Test results are used to feed performance league tables, which rank schools’ performance, drive teachers to teach to the tests, stifle teachers’ ability to exercise professional judgement and remove curriculum flexibility.

The forthcoming curriculum review should underpin consideration of appropriate approaches to assessment and testing. The opportunity to review the accountability regime should not be missed.


CALL FOR AN END TO VIOLENCE

Violence and oppression of teachers in Zimbabwe must end, the NASUWT is due to tell a meeting of human rights campaigners.

The Union is moving a motion at the AGM of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), which condemns the harassment and violence being suffered by teachers, trade unionists and political activists in Zimbabwe.

Teachers in the country are being targeted in a bid by the ruling Zanu-PF party to stop them from exposing the human rights abuses being perpetrated by Robert Mugabe’s government.

Mr Mugabe has created Operation Vharamuromo, which means Operation Close Your Mouth, to suppress the views of those who oppose his leadership.

The NASUWT is working with teacher trade union partners internationally to provide support to the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), which has appealed to the leaders of the three parties that make up the country’s national unity government to end their programme of violence that has seen teachers killed, imprisoned and ‘disappear’ simply for speaking up for their rights.

PTUZ has been working to provide teachers who have suffered abuse and oppression with professional counselling and practical support.

Members of PTUZ have been targeted by government forces after the Union accused the Ministry of Education of failing to speak out about the alleged intimidation of and violence against rural teachers, who were politically targeted during the turbulent 2008 election period.

Other nations must move swiftly to condemn the abuse of human and labour rights in Zimbabwe, the motion being put forward by the NASUWT states, making financial aid and political engagement dependent on a cessation of violence.

ACTSA was established in 1994 as the successor organisation to the Anti- Apartheid Movement (AAM), to develop and promote solidarity in the UK and internationally with Southern Africa. Its AGM sets the organisation’s priorities for the following year. More information about ACTSA and the situation facing teachers in Zimbabwe can be found at www.actsa.org.

Go online: www.nasuwt.org.uk/zimbabwe.


MARCHING WITH PRIDE

(Photo captioned: Belfast Pride)

The NASUWT continued to demonstrate its commitment to promoting equality for all at this year’s Belfast Pride.

The Union was the first teaching union in Northern Ireland to publicly support the Pride event, which celebrates and champions lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) equality.

Over 17,000 people took part in the week-long event and the NASUWT was at the centre of the action, holding a rally at the Europa Hotel and taking part in the mass parade through the centre of the city.

NASUWT President Chris Lines and NASUWT Northern Ireland President Brighdin Lyttle addressed the rally to highlight the work being done by the Union, both nationally and in Northern Ireland, to combat all forms of inequality.

Mental health and wellbeing was chosen as the Union’s theme for the event, highlighting both the publication of recent research by the Union into teachers’ mental health and the impact that prejudice and discrimination can have on the wellbeing of LGBT teachers.

Mairéad McCafferty, Chair of the Union’s Northern Ireland Equality Committee, said that the Pride festival and the work of the NASUWT was critical in ending the ‘violence of enforced invisibility’ often experienced by many LGBT people, which can cause much of the mental ill health suffered by them and their families.

“We believe education is key to creating a healthy, inclusive society where PRIDE – an acronym I’ve previously referred to as representing Promotion of Respect, Inclusion, Diversity and Equality for all – is integral or certainly something to which our education system, indeed our whole society, should aspire,” she said.

For the NASUWT research into teachers’ mental health, go online: www.nasuwt.org.uk/MentalHealthReport.

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