Keates said that: “no aspect of teacher’s work has been left untouched by the coalition government” and added that the last four years has also seen more marketization, competition and managerial administration for teachers and support staff. She also criticised the current situation with Ofsted inspections and said in many cases these have created “a climate of fear, intense pressure and intimidation”.
“We should have accountability and inspection, but it must be the right kind of inspection”.
She said the
NASUWTwas critical of changes allowing some schools to take on unqualified staff and explained how polling revealed 68% of teachers reporting that their schools had now taken on unqualified staff.
Teachers were now facing increasing job loss and job insecurity and many had also suffered a pay cut, she said, as the national pay structure had been “hacked to pieces by the coalition government”. Keates added that because the profession is becoming increasingly uncompetitive fewer graduates were applying to become teachers. Numbers applying to teach English have seen a 16% drop and even more worryingly ICT has seen a 58% drop.
She added that: “overall applications have dropped by 3% with resignations now at an all-time high and morale at an all-time low”.
Keates said any attacks on teachers are actually attacks on young people, arguing the current government is also attacking the entitlement of children to be taught by a qualified teacher.
She welcomed Tristram Hunt’s announced plans to better support teaching support staff.
Equally she was critical that teaching is one of the only professions where lead practitioners divorce themselves from the key roles they trained for, unlike medicine, accountancy or law. She said this needed to change to get head teachers and senior members of school leadership teams back in the classroom as well.
On teacher recruitment and retention she said the profession had to tackle the severe underrepresentation of the BME community, and as well as older teachers who reportedly felt vulnerable and unneeded.
She concluded that when Labour left office the UK schools system was in the top 20 globally and that “Labour didn’t lose the 2010 election on its education policies.” She hoped the party would remind people of this ahead of the election.
Shadow Secretary of State for Education Tristram Hunt paid tribute to Chris Keates and the
NASUWT. “I’m a teacher myself and it is a privilege to see the commitment of teachers every week when I visit schools” he said.
He stressed it was the quality of the teacher in the classroom which made the difference, and that “no education system can exceed the quality of its teaching.”
He said Labour strongly supported all teachers in the classroom qualified or working towards a qualification.
He said any further changes must not be top down and should follow debate and discussion with the unions and the Royal College of Teachers. He also called for a programme of relicensing and revalidation of professional development.
“We don’t want to lose great teachers into management and there are career structures that allow them to do that” he said.
If Labour is elected in 2015, Hunt suggested “a period of stability and reflection” allowing colleagues in the profession to catch their breath. He noted that Labour has already announced its plans to reverse the government’s decision to scrap AS Levels, but said it will not embark on further extensive curriculum changes.
He suggested Labour would reform the National College of Teaching and Leadership however, and aim to strip out much of the unnecessary paperwork currently effecting teachers, which would allow them to focus on teaching.
Finally Hunt said he hoped to encourage high performing teachers to go to underperforming schools, something not currently not happening. On teacher training he said school led training had its merits but higher education institutions needed to pay their part too. He noted the regional deanery model, which he supported as a concept with trainees maintaining strong links with a university as well as placement schools.
He concluded by saying he looked forward to working with Chris Keates and her members in government following the general election.