Teachers are today taking national strike action over excessive workload and bureaucracy, performance-related pay and changes to their pensions.
The NUT members say they have no option other than taking industrial action because the Education Secretary refuses to negotiate with them.
Michael Gove yesterday wrote to the teaching unions saying he was following the progress of weekly talks closely. But, said NUT general secretary Christine Blower, that was the problem.
She said: “The Secretary of State has attended none of the talks, nor have other ministers. The talks are with civil servants who are forbidden by Mr Gove from straying into areas of policy. The talks are only allowed to discuss how Mr Gove’s policies are implemented.
“Mr Gove’s letter shows how little he listens to the concerns of teachers and how little progress has been made in the talks process. His letter confirms why we are right to strike.”
Schools across the country are expected to be affected by today’s action, even though members of EIS, NASUWT and UCAC have decided not to strike. They previously took action twice together in October.
Christine Blower said: “Teachers deeply regret the disruption caused by this strike action to parents and teachers. The government’s refusal, however, to engage to resolve the dispute means that we have no alternative other than to demonstrate the seriousness of our concerns.
“Teachers’ levels of workload are intolerable –the government’s own survey, published last month, shows that primary school teachers work nearly 60 hours a week and secondary school teachers work nearly 56 hours a week. 2 in 5 teachers are leaving the profession in the first 5 years of teaching as are many others. This is bad for children and bad for education.
“Destroying the national pay framework means that in every school head teachers and governors have to worry about developing a pay system instead of focussing on teaching and learning.
“The government’s performance related pay is unnecessary and will build unfairness and additional bureaucracy. Further, international evidence shows that performance related paydoes not work for schools.
“Teachers do not believe that they can work to the age of 68 or even later for a full pension – and they don’t believe it is educationally desirable either. The NUT recognises that other workers are having their pensions squeezed. We believe that this is wrong too – everyone should be entitled to a decent standard of living in retirement.
“Michael Gove can resolve this situation by listening to our concerns and doing something about them. Our concerns are not just for teachers but for the future standard and provision of education”.