Christine reminded us that this was probably the last normal executive before the General Election is called. The executive have now had discussions with the education spokespersons from all three main parties- Michael Gove for the Tories, David Laws of the Lib Dems and Vernon Coaker, the Schools Minister, for the Labour Party.
There is likely to be a priority motion on defending public services at our Annual Conference, but we await to see the detail of next week’s budget. The TUC has set out six tax options which it calculates would cover the defecit without the need for massive cuts to services.
- Tax on finance market transactions- the Robin Hood Tax
- Action to avoid general tax avoidence
- A cap on tax relief for higher earners
- An empty properties tax
- Collecting tax currenlty due by improving HMRC resources
- Changing the rules on "Non-Domiciled" tax
Early Day Motion 845 in the name of Labour MP Frank Dobson on the new Ofsted Inspections now has 76 signatures, including David Laws, the Lib Dem education spokesman. It reads:
"That this House recognises that an effective system of school inspection should be genuinely supportive of school improvement and as such requires the confidence of teachers and headteachers; notes that there are deep concerns in a number of schools about the new inspection framework and evaluation schedule and the interpretation of these by inspectors, particularly in relation to the limiting judgments for safeguarding and achievement; is seriously concerned about reports of inspectors making arbitrary judgments based on trivial issues which lead to schools unfairly being marked down or in some cases deemed to have failed; is also concerned that parents and the general public will be given an erroneous and misleading impression of school standards; and urges Her Majesty's Chief Inspector to revise the guidance to schools and inspectors to remedy these concerns."
You can check whether your MP has signed the motion by clicking here.
On the Union’s Charter for Education- our policy document for use in the General Election, Christine reported that there is a different version now available that does not include the recommendation not to vote for the BNP and fascist parties. This version does not have to be paid for from the Political Fund, so can be downloaded and freely printed and circulated local NUT Associations to Parliamentary Candidates and others during the election campaign. All NUT material to promote education in the General Election campaign can be viewed here.Christine expressed solidarity with the PCS union who have been taking action against civil service (unilaterally imposed) plans to cut the redundancy pay entitlement- seemingly to smooth the way to prepare for massive (and cheaper) job losses. Redundancies are already an unwelcome feature in many schools, and it is important that we defend decent redundancy packages for hard working staff in the public services.
Christine and John Bangs have recently returned from an OECD meeting- sad to feel that the privatizing agenda seems to be running rampant through the OECD countries. However, some very good speakers, including Diane Ravich, a former advisor to the Bush administration who has recently “changed sides” on the debate around education in the US- and has written a book: The Death and Life of Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education (available from Amazon)
We await to see how much of the unfinished Education Policy business will be passed in the last days of the Parliamentary Session. Christine felt that the proposed School Report Card will be passed; the Government seems to be hinting that this will be ‘better than’ the league tables- particularly in their propaganda seeking to discourage Head Teachers from supporting the NAHT and NUT ballot.
There was a question about what would happen if any NUT head teacher or leadership member taking action over the SATS was victimized or disciplined as a result of taking the action. Christine confirmed that, as with any other action taken by the Union, we would be willing to ballot all NUT members in that school for strike action in their defence.
Christine praised the delegation that recently represented the Union at the Women’s TUC in Eastbourne. We also have delegations coming up to the TUC Disabled Workers and LGBT Conferences- I will be a delegate to both of these- reports will be published on the site as they happen.
The main topic of debate at the Executive was, of course, building for the ballot of leadership group members on the SATS boycott. Both NUT and NAHT's ballots open on the 15th March, and closes at noon on April 16th. All leadership members are urged to return their ballot papers. You can read more about this trade dispute, and the wider education campaign for assessment reform by clicking here.
