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Vote for education on 5 May

The NASUWT is campaigning for:

Pay, pensions and conditions of service

• parity of pay and conditions of service for teachers and principals in Northern Ireland with colleagues in other parts of the UK;
• commitment to maintaining a national framework for pay and conditions of service;
• urgent action to tackle excessive workload and working hours of teachers and principals;
• the establishment of the single Education and Skills Authority (ESA) as a matter of urgency;
• no reduction or deterioration in public sector pensions.

Funding

• protection for public services from funding cuts;
• an increase in real terms year on year investment in schools and colleges.

Working with the trade unions

• the establishment of a social partnership model of working with the Northern Ireland Assembly (NIA) which is based on constructive dialogue to secure high quality educational standards and working conditions for pupils and teachers;
• a commitment to embedding social partnership in all areas of the education system with an assurance that similar ways of working become established within Education and Library Boards (ELB) (and with the ESA when established) and at school level;
• the recognition of trade unions in all workplaces for the purposes of successful representation and collective bargaining. Pupil Behaviour and Discipline
• the entitlement of school staff and students to learn and work in an environment free from violence and disruption;
• for principals to be empowered to exercise their professional judgement in the use of exclusion;
• the requirement for all schools to establish behaviour policies and strategies to support the work of classroom teachers;
• action to stop cyberbullying.

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

• a diverse range of high-quality provision for every child with SEN within a genuinely inclusive education service;
• SEN policy which is based on objective assessments of children’s needs and how they will be met. Policy should not be distorted by preconceived ideological notions that assume that inclusion in mainstream schools, regardless of circumstances, is necessarily better.

Equalities

• an education system that tackles discrimination and is actively committed to genuine equality of opportunity;
• a statutory duty on employers of teachers to deliver genuine equality of opportunity and to tackle all forms of workplace discrimination, without exception;
• a ban on members of racist and fascist organisations from working in schools and colleges.

Vote for Education

National elections are taking place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on 5 May 2011. As with this year’s General Election, the NASUWT will be running its Vote for Education campaign to inform members to support them in using their vote to promote and protect education. This is particularly critical in light of the severe cuts facing education and teachers’ pay and conditions.

The NASUWT has already begun attending each regional party political conference to lobby politicians and press them on their commitments around education and this work will continue right up until the election.

Members will be receiving much more information and advice in the run up to the May elections, including analysis of each party’s manifesto commitments.

The NASUWT will be launching dedicated web pages to support the campaign and will be encouraging members to use social networking to get involved and share their views with other members and the Union.