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NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE
Invest in teachers, NASUWT tells international leaders
(Photo of summit delegates)
"…teaching must remain a rewarding and attractive career if teachers are to be able to effectively equip young people with the skills the employers of the future will require"
Attacks on teachers’ pay, status and professional autonomy risk damaging educational standards worldwide, the NASUWT has told international leaders.
Ensuring teachers and school leaders receive professional time, resources and training is critical in the drive to continue to improve school performance, delegates to an international summit on the future of the teaching profession heard the NASUWT argue.
Dr Patrick Roach [right], NASUWT Deputy General Secretary, was among government ministers, union leaders and teachers from 23 countries at the New York summit.
Organised by Education International (EI), the US Department of Education and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the event examined how teachers and school leaders can be prepared to deliver the skills young people will need to succeed in the 21st century.
Dr Roach told delegates that teaching must remain a rewarding and attractive career if teachers are to be able to effectively equip young people with the skills employers of the future will require.
However, the attacks on the profession currently being seen in the UK and wider afield will seriously affect teachers’ ability to support young people, Dr Roach warned, and risk hampering the recovery from the global economic crisis.
Furthermore, he argued, the UK Coalition Government’s unprecedented assault on the teaching profession could undermine the UK’s standing as a global leader in education.
“It is impossible to deny that the quality of a country's education rests upon the quality of its teachers,” he said. “Ensuring that teachers receive the professional time, resources, training and development and rewards they need will be a critical challenge for the Government if it is to retain its seat at the table of the leading education nations in the world.”
Dr Roach’s view was backed up by a report released by the OECD to coincide with the conference which found that the quality of teachers is inextricably linked to raising education standards.
The report argues that teachers need to be given status, decent pay and professional autonomy in order for students to achieve their best.
The report compares international systems of teacher recruitment and retention and found that the bestperforming countries are those in which teachers have access to high quality professional development and good levels of pay and are supported to use their professional judgement.
(Photo of Dr Patrick Roach)
To read the report and for further details of the summit, visit
www.oecd.org/education/teachersummit
SUMMIT EXTRA
The New York summit was held to celebrate the success of the UK’s education system in a meeting of the highest performing education nations in the world.
This was the second time in as many years that the UK had made it to the table of the top 20 performing countries globally, based on its educational successes prior to 2010.
The NASUWT was asked to form part of the UK delegation as a result of the success in increasing attainment at GCSE and A level, developing a highly qualified and motivated school workforce and achieving record numbers of young people going to university.
In sharp contrast to the UK Coalition Government’s agenda, the other high performing nations present at the summit all have a record of collaboration with trade unions and a pay and conditions framework which rewards and respects teachers as skilled professionals.
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