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Schools Minister defends Coalition policies

(Photo of Schools Minister Nick Gibbs)

Conference gave a muted response to claims by Schools Minister Nick Gibb [right] that the Coalition Government’s reforms to education will improve standards, raise the status of the teaching profession and close the attainment gap.

Mr Gibb, standing in for Education Minister Michael Gove, who chose not to attend, attempted to convince delegates of the Coalition’s plans for education.

He pointed to moves to give teachers more protection from false allegations and give them the power to search pupils and confiscate inappropriate items, such as mobile phones, as evidence of the Government’s commitment to listening to the profession. He also announced the launch of a review into members of the BNP working as classroom teachers and thanked the NASUWT for leading the way on tackling this issue.

However, Mr Gibb then attempted to defend the Government’s package of cuts and reforms, claiming that the public sector pay freeze was the only way to safeguard teacher jobs: “Our priority is to be as fair as possible to all public sector workers and the freeze is helping to maintain the number of teacher posts,” he said. He went on to reiterate the Coalition mantra that public sector pensions are unaffordable, citing erroneous figures to seek to justify the Coalition’s attacks on pensions. He claimed that the Government would protect accrued rights, a statement which has been completely undermined by the change in pensions indexing from RPI to CPI.

Mr Gibb told delegates that making initial teacher training more school-based and developing teaching schools as new centres of excellence will drive up standards in the profession and .stated that the Government’s education reforms are ‘giving teachers more space and flexibility to teach by reducing central prescription and by cutting back on bureaucracy.’


“...Our priority is to be as fair as possible to all public sector workers and the freeze is helping to maintain the number of teacher posts... “


Shadow Minister commits to state education

(Photo of Shadow Education Minister Andy Burnham)

Shadow Education Minister Andy Burnham pledged to fight the Coalition Government’s ‘reckless gamble’ with the education system, as he addressed Conference, describing the first 12 months of the administration’s education policy as a ‘sorry story of broken promises, incompetence and wrong-headed reforms.’

Mr Burnham decried the Coalition’s drive to create what he described as a more ‘atomised, competitive and divided’ education system, hitting out at the academies and free schools policy, the creation of the English Baccalaureate and the attacks on teachers’ pay and conditions. He was scathing in his assessment of the Coalition’s contempt for the state education system, saying: “I support parent and student choice, diversity of provision in schools, the promotion of academic excellence and high achievement. My mission is to show how they are entirely compatible with a truly comprehensive system. Indeed that is the only way we will help all children be the best they can be.”

Coalition promises of greater freedom, localism and autonomy have been left in tatters by the Coalition’s desperate bids to strong-arm schools into becoming academies, tell schools what to teach through the introduction of the English Baccalaureate and the programme of harsh cuts to public services, Mr Burnham argued.

He promised to continue to champion a democratically accountable, fully funded state education system which supports all young people to achieve their potential.


The General Secretary responds…

(Photo of NASUWT General Secretary Chris Keates)

Conference gave a standing ovation to the General Secretary’s report card-style analysis of Michael Gove’s first year in office. Ms Keates described Mr Gove’s attempts to break up the national framework of pay and conditions as ‘educational vandalism’ and hit out at his underhand tactics in seeking to force schools to convert to academy status.

She called on Mr Gove to abandon the English Baccalaureate, saying: “Subjects like music, art, design and technology and RE are worth much more than Michael seems to think.”

Ms Keates concluded by highlighting the results of an NASUWT survey of members which showed that nearly half of teachers reported their job satisfaction has fallen in the last year and were seriously considering leaving the profession.

“So, Michael has had one success,” she stated. “In 12 months, he has managed to generate the levels of dissatisfaction among teachers that it took the last Tory Government 18 years to achieve.”

Ms Keates appealed to Mr Burnham to fight to protect schools from the ‘cold and calculated educational vandalism’ being perpetrated by the Coalition Government. Ms Keates welcomed his commitment to challenging the Education Bill, telling the shadow minister that its provisions will undermine educational standards and will stifle social mobility.

Ms Keates urged the party to act to continue to defend working people, saying: “People are looking to Labour to give them a voice and protect state education.”

She also asked Mr Burnham to make a series of commitments – to fight to bring academies and free schools into local authority control, ban members of BNP from schools and support the introduction of the Robin Hood Tax on banking transactions.

“Keep busting the myth that the only way to tackle the deficit is to slash public services,” she appealed. “Public services are part of the solution to the economic crisis, not the problem.”


“...In 12 months he has managed to generate the levels of dissatisfaction among teachers that it took the last Tory Government 18 years to achieve... “


Watch a video of Ms Keates’s speech at www.nasuwt.org.uk/Conference2011