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NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE


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Sixth-form provision

The NASUWT has been engaged in a campaign of industrial action to protect jobs and maintain sixth-form provision in Wales after a number of local authorities set out plans to strip schools of their sixth forms and concentrate provision within further education colleges.

The NASUWT believes the plans could lead to a large number of teaching and support staff jobs being lost, as well as a reduction in choice for post-16 learners. This would have a devastating impact on the quality of teaching and learning for students in Wales, the NASUWT believes.

Post-16 education must remain a part of the state education sector and the NASUWT is urging politicians to rethink their further education strategy.

A question mark is also hanging over the future of A levels and vocational qualifications after Education Minister Leighton Andrews called for a debate on whether to narrow the range of qualifications on offer to young people.

The NASUWT is concerned that this could lead to a reduction in choice for learners, with some subjects squeezed out of the curriculum. This could also have a knock-on effect on what subjects schools choose to offer their students.

Any reduction in the qualifications offer could also put teachers’ jobs at risk.

Colleagues in England are facing a similar situation with the introduction of the English Baccalaureate in schools and the NASUWT will oppose the introduction of any plans that reduce choice, freedom and flexibility for schools, colleges and learners.

GTCW

The NASUWT is calling on all political parties to commit to disbanding the General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW). The Union believes it serves no purpose in its current form, is a financial drain on the profession and increasingly involves itself in activities beyond its remit.

A recent poll of members in Wales demonstrated that the vast majority of the profession support the Union’s call.

The decision to axe the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) makes the position of the GTCW even more untenable, the NASUWT contends, and it should be scrapped, with further consultation undertaken on how best to regulate the profession in future.


The NASUWT is campaigning for

Pay, pensions and conditions of service

•commitment to maintaining a national framework for pay and conditions of service, with no devolution of pay and conditions to the WAG;
•no reduction or deterioration in public sector pensions;
•the retention of the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) to make recommendations to the Secretary of State on teachers’ and headteachers’ pay;
•establish a workforce adjustment fund to avoid compulsory redundancies in the public sector;
•disband the General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW).

Funding

•protection for public services from funding cuts;
•an increase in real terms year-on-year investment in schools and colleges;
•a commitment to closing the £604 pupil funding gap that exists between Wales and England;
•protection and promotion of state education by opposing the creation of academies and free schools in Wales

Pupil behaviour and discipline

• the entitlement of school staff and students to learn and work in an environment free from violence and disruption;
• for headteachers 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 that 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.

Post-14 education

•provide equality of access to post-14 education with the retention of state-owned sixth-form provision.

Further information on the impact of the spending cuts, the NASUWT’s ten-point alternative plan for reducing the financial deficit and the latest updates from across the UK on the threats to education are available on the NASUWT’s Championing Education web page at www.nasuwt.org.uk/ChampioningEducation


Vote for Education

The NASUWT will be running its Vote for Education campaign to assist members in using their vote to promote and protect education.