Chris Keates began the event by saying: “we have been attending Conservative Conference for many years and have always had good engagement with party members, Councillors, teachers and parents”.
She indicated that whilst over the previous four years NASUWT has had some major policy disagreements with Michael Gove MP, she hoped the union and government had a shared ambition for the future.
“We believe that we both want young people to achieve their ambitions and we believe that the teaching workforce and the quality of workforce is key”
“We also know the importance of the education team around the child. I know my teaching colleagues very much value the role of support staff in schools”.
Ms Keates said that Nicky Morgan needed to address the key issues for the teaching workforce post the 2015 general election, and added: “We pride ourselves in engaging with our members and pride ourselves in member led policy”.
She then welcomed the new Secretary of State to her position following the reshuffle in July. She also said that nobody would deny the education service had had four years of unrelenting reform, and that initially teachers felt beleaguered.
She added that in 2010 whilst nobody in education was complacent, our education system was in the top 20 in the world and the 6th best in Europe. However she added that since the coalition government had taken office, teaching staff had since a market rise in “Marketization, privatisation and competition”.
“We have no problem giving autonomy to schools providing it is the right type of autonomy” Ms Keates said.
She went on to say that schools had been given autonomy over bricks and mortar, hiring and firing but have been swamped in many cases. She said there was a huge managerial discrepancy in schools and particularly many older female teachers being forced out.
The NASUWT was critical of the removal of qualified teacher status by Michael Gove and said that this only added to a growing problem of job insecurity and job loss and Ms Keates added that 40% of newly qualified teachers were in part-time posts.
Equally Chris Keates said that these reforms had a negative impact on teacher recruitment with statistics showing the number of graduates going on to teacher training had reduced by 10% this year and primary teacher training number were down 3%.
She said that ‘golden hellos’ were not working and that some key subjects had seen a noticeable decline with music teachers down 13% and ICT down 58%. She was also critical of the introduction of the EBACC and that Music, Art and PE were being reduced from most timetables.
She also added that many classroom teachers were reporting an increase in bureaucracy and that in many cases this only amounted to a paper trail to satisfy Ofsted inspectors.
Ms Keates also said it was important to restore teacher morale and confidence with 88% saying they don’t feel valued in the profession. She added that it was important for the government to help tackle the under representation of BME teachers, disabled teachers and to help achieve gender equality in the profession. She added:
“I do welcome your appointment Nicky and your main priorities of tackling workload, SEN reforms and curriculum changes. Teachers are looking for some reforms in these areas especially with workload often making the job unmanageable”.
She concluded by asking if Nicky Morgan could reverse the QTS decision on allowing unqualified teachers into the classroom. She asked the audience to imagine if the government removed the need for Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants or Dentists to be qualified to practice:
“Why if it is not right for them, why is it right for the profession that has got our young people’s future in its hands?”.
Secretary of State Nicky Morgan thanked the NASUWT for the invitation to speak. She paid tribute to teachers and described them as: “hardworking dedicated professionals”.
She sympathised with the level of changes experienced by the profession during Michael Gove’s tenure. She said he “certainly hit the ground running and didn’t stop for four and a half years”.
She was very clear that her priorities were having the best schools and having the best possible workforce including support staff. She made no apology for the change of curriculum and syllabuses because the government is “obsessed with attainment”. She said it was important for the government to strive to meet rigorous academic standards because we need to be “playing our part in getting young people in Britain ready for life in the modern global workforce”.
She also stated that children could always be in danger like the recent Rotherham and Birmingham scandals have shown and praised her colleague the Children’s Minister Edward Timpson for his work in this crucial area.
She played down criticism of the EBACC and said it was important for young people to keep their options open with continuing to study science as if they don’t this can limit study and career options later on.
She added that she was working with Ofsted to produce a myth busting document about inspection and that whilst some stakeholders encouraged her to bring forward new legislation or guidance for schools and teachers, that she believed that legislation was not always the answer.
On teacher recruitment and retention she said that there was always an element of drop out in any profession as staff decided against long term teaching careers.
“As we have a recovering economy there will always be other options for talented graduates.” But she went on to say that Teach First was now one of the biggest graduate recruiters in the UK.
She agreed that more needs to be done to create role models in schools as it is so often teachers who inspire young people early in their lives. She wanted to see more women in leadership roles and mentioned the ‘Your life’ campaign later this autumn encouraging more girls to take Maths and Engineering and other STEM subjects at school and college.
She concluded by saying that despite criticism of unqualified teachers, the number of unqualified teachers has fallen in the current parliament.
She concluded by saying that she does believe that some people who have succeeded in Business or engineering had a role in going into teaching an inspiring young people with their advice and real world experience.