3 Feb 2010

Boycotting the 2010 SATS

(Louise Cuffaro, Newham NUT)
At the end of January, I attended an informative London Reps’ training. Only a day or two previously, a joint NUT/NAHT press statement had been issued stating that both unions will be balloting for action "to frustrate the administration of SATs". However, it appears that only NUT leadership group members (together with NAHT members) will in fact be balloted, due to the legality about who is responsible for administering the SATs. Reps held a meeting to discuss our concerns about this.  
NUT Conference voted to support a boycott of the 2010 SATs. Most Reps and our members expected strong guidance and support to be issued and publicised in time to enable them to resist all SATs preparation from September. But no such guidance came from the NUT Executive.
Inevitably, Heads have pressurised Year 6 teachers to carry out mock SATs tests, to hold booster classes, to give up P.E., Art, trips...  Heads have used Ofsted, League Tables and the lack of any concrete details of the NUT campaign to ensure that the grinding preparation for SATs (which constrains the curriculum and means stress and workload for pupils and teachers alike) has carried on.
The legal difficulties may well be real. But the lack of attempt to  guide NUT members to strongly resist the preparation process means reps felt unsure that this ballot will be won.  It's not usually the manager members of any union that boldly carry out industrial action! However, it is possible for NUT Headteachers, together with their NAHT colleagues, to be persuaded to vote and take decisive action so long as a serious and public strategy is embarked on urgently and publicised to staff,parents and governors. For example: 
1) issue urgent guidance and support to Year 6 staff to help them resist the preparation process. 
2) all members should be asked to vote that they will be prepared to take action to support anyone who is victimised.  
3) all members receive FAQs on how to resist if a Head tries to pressure them to administer the SATs.  
54 reps at the meeting signed a letter to Christine Blower with our concerns. Teachers should make their views known to the NUT Executive before they meet on Thursday 25 February.

What future for school leavers?

Jim Thomson ( Somerset NUT and ‘Youth Fight for Jobs’ )
Teachers work their socks off to get students through exams. We are absolutely delighted when our pupils achieve good grades and the day finally arrives when they step out into the wide world to make their fortune - or so the fairy stories go. These days, however, the only people making fortunes are bankers - who got the big banks, and everyone else, into deep trouble, were then bailed out from the public purse - yet still clock up million pound bonuses!
Their "greed is good morality" has led directly to a jobs crisis particularly amongst 16-25 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEETs). Even if school leavers get jobs, they are often low paid. If students manage to get to university, the fees and loans system only means huge debt. Many young teachers are burdened with debts of £20,000 or more to pay back. With the government slicing £900 million off the higher education budget, and with decent jobs draining away, things are not going to get better.
The future could be very bleak for youngsters coming out onto the jobs market. With large scale job losses in the retail sector and across other industries, on top of massive cuts being planned in public services, youth unemployment will soon top 1 million.Demoralisation and even racist divisions could set in. The BNP and the far right hope to exploit the situation facing workers and young people. They aim to get a wider platform for their racist, divisive ideas by standing their leader Nick Griffin in the general election in Barking, an area decimated by lack of housing and jobs. Griffin will pretend to be the champion of ordinary white working class people against the unpopular Labour MP Margaret Hodge.
Recently East London Bus workers went on strike forming picket lines of hundreds - working people of all races and religions united to defend themselves. The BNP will try to drive workers and young people apart. That is why ‘Youth Fight for Jobs’ has called a demo. on March 13 and is asking for support from trade unions.
‘Youth Fight for Jobs’ was launched in January 2009 to stand up for young people, and to campaign for our rights in the recession. It is supported by the PCS, RMT and CWU nationally as well as local branches of many unions, including some NUT Local Associations.
We urge you to come to the Barking demo with your colleagues. Let your students know about it too! Visit: www.youthfightforjobs.com
MARCH FOR REAL JOBS * BARKING * SAT 13 MARCH

Whose history do we teach?

Dan Gillman (Waltham Forest NUT)
History can be an intensely political subject. This was clearly underlined when Margaret Thatcher took personal charge of writing the first National Curriculum for History.
As we seem to be approaching the onset of a new Tory administration it might be worth reflecting on how History faired under New Labour.
They failed to extend the age range asked to study it to anything like the European average. We've also seen the complete domination of the KS4 curriculum by the great exam board privateers and their stampede towards profit. All non-profit making options at KS4 were removed from the new specifications and all focused on the US victory in the new Cold War specification, a specification by the way that discounts completely the actions of the USA in either Vietnam or Central/South America!
We did at least see a move away from Thatcher's fixation with chronology, although OfSTED continues to underline their infatuation with this particular historical skill.
What would Cameron and the Tories bring? Well much of the same I'm sure, with a good dose of imperialist nostalgia mixed in as well. I'm not sure what's better; a party who eschews history or one who sees it from under the visor of a pith helmet!

Kevin Courtney elected as DGS

Classroom Teacher welcomes Kevin Courtney’s election as NUT Deputy General Secretary. He is a long-standing campaigner who is calling for joint action to oppose cuts and privatisation.
His election means that the NUT now has a General Secretary and Deputy GS, Treasurer, and an incoming President that have all been elected from the Left.
This leadership will have the best chance in years to really set a fighting tone throughout the Union, and turn the tide of workload and SATs that is overwhelming thousands of hardworking teachers.
Many teachers put outrageous workload levels at the top of their list of complaints. For the last two years, delegates at NUT Annual Conference have voted overwhelmingly for the Union to organise a national ballot to call national action. That’s because the policy of keeping workload to a reasonable level by just an individual or school-by-school approach is NOT working.
So far those in control of the NUT have not acted on those Conference decisions. That has left classroom teachers ground down by endless demands, in and out of school. They will now be watching and waiting to see how this team at the top faces up to the workload challenge.

2 Feb 2010

It's all a game isnt it ?

Rodney Kaykreizman writes:

Working Conditions-Conditions of Service-Competency proceedings.
Discipline and Authoritarian Models of Education - Effects on Teachers.

A major problem in Education is the degree of effective suthoritarianism that has now been effectively handed to Headteachers who always wanted to have the extra powers in their hands to stop any criticism of their "Authoritarian Tendencies". It seems the effects of 35 years of Conservative Right Wing reforms of the system has achieved this and given them all the powers they need to effectively deal with any possible criticism of their semi-absolutist rule.

NUT Divisions and Associations are overwhelmed with casework that Regional Officials cannot deal with as their time is limited. They are awash with cases all the time that are really nothing at all. A minor critique, mostly, of something Heads have laid down as policy with minimum discussion or evaluation of the practice of the policy, where it's not been totally and immediately applied unthinkingly and uncritically, is now grounds for Disciplinary proceedings of the teachers concerned.

Nothing more aptly describes the move from a generally applied approximately "Colliegeate Approach" and system of organisation to the Authoritarian model of Management and Workers model of the Right Wing Tories, and their allies New Labour.

Under the old system critical evaluation of all systems and policies was a constant ongoing understood model of working. That is now out the window as one now has to be in fear of coming under constant scrutiny and attack of one's own very professionalism and rights to work- as the new Heads will not have at all any criticism or ongoing alternatives to their "Fuhrer model" I'm right, and, furthermore- if you challenge I'll kill you, strip you of your rights to work, and pretend that your incompetant and unfit to teach- Effectively they've been given the rights to monitor and control any "Recalitrant or Critical or even Rebelious elements" sort them out and get them out.

They are the new Gatekeepers. Most of them love this element of their jobs as it gives them more powers than they've ever had, and at the same time massages their ego's, and assures them that the differentials the've enjoyed for many years and, the cosy chats with Officials, confirms their status as "Managers and Bosses of the system. They don't see themselves "Negatively as Bullies" although the line between what they do, and the actual real act of- Bullying is very close.

Any model of a "Free School" is therefore very suspect- as it doesnt contain this essential element of Tory Control built into the model. Never mind that they work better, are better places to work in, happier in their collective approaches, more thorough, and far superior in all Educational aspects-Never mind that they children learn more that matters, with a much better more sophisticated model of understanding and possible future application.

What is quite astonishing is the New Labour's assumption the Tories are right, and their wrongly placed suspicion of teachers as subverters of all authority and virtual wreckers of the system. Thats how the NUT. and other Teacher Unions. most notable the NASUWT, who together are clearly viewed in this way, by New Labour and the Right Wing of the Tories. Instead of Labour applauding and agreeing with the most radical aspects that are not really very radical at all, of Teachers Policies and appraoches- they go for the Authoritian and Right Wing Tory approaches.

Given that there's so little difference between their approaches to state Education; the completion of the break up of the public sector into ever smaller and differentiated units of competing "business models" mimicking the free enterprise system of the society outside of the area of Education is the ongoing priority of the Tories, and New Labour is doing their bidding, so much quicker and faster than they could have done it.

The break up of the State System is well advanced under the " New Labour Tories"

The whole movement towards Academies has to be seen along these lines. Its the cementing of the marriage of Business and Religious Interests to Educational Institutions- that will ensure that the so called "State System" is totally ideologically kept in line with all the ideology of the "Free Market Sytem of Society" and its managing cohorts the business fraternity. They want to weave the Education system so close to business that there's little possibility of ever actually breaking out and directly challenging their ideological interests.

In that sense its a very "direct defense of the Capitalist system of its very ideology" that it perceived may be actually challenged and brought out into the open. Perhaps it was the fact that what always had been assumed, and hidden, was in their view possibly now vulnerable, and open to attack, by the Left, in the form of criticism and a critical approach by Teachers, and worse by their students- was perhaps too much for them as "where would it all end ", and would the end be a critical understanding of Capitalism and Busness and its Ideology of Control through all the institutions of the state ? Not in thir interests at all. hence the need to shore up, break up the Public Sector, make sure it was totally dependant upon the ideology of Business interests or Religious ones which would not challenge or ever raise any of these questions anyway.

New Labour's compromise with the interests of Capital rather than working directly for the interests of who they were supposedly representing Labour and Working Class organisations like the Trade Unions etc.has meant that they've imported into the Authoritarian model of the Right Wing degree's of political correctness along the lines of Equality- and Fairness, Discrimination, etc rather like the Christian Churches have all sorts of lovely values, which of course stay totally unrealistic a sort of future we are morally obliged to work/move towards, to be good christians in Gods eyes, but as they never are really given concrete form, remain ideals, and actually just part of the " Rhetoric we sort of Recognise". and have seldom ever effectively challenged the dominant interests of Business and the Monopolies Bankers and Finance etc.

These are the interests that New labour have decided have to be supported and extended.Not those of their supporters, their voters, and their natural constituency that finances and supports them,, Not those of their Trade Unions, Not those of the People who finance the system by taxation, not by the interests of the increasingly multi-culteral nature of society as demographically happens in the cities.

This is the process of how we effectively defend and extend the interests of the dominant class as perceived by New labour who are very clearly governing in their(The Dominant Classes) direct interests now.

They are "External Dressing" to make the cake eatable. The iceing etc.Gay rights can be legislated for, along with civil partnerships, along with equality legislations galore, rather making them totally pointless as the Law aand policies that will have virtually no effects in an ever increasingly unfair society where Class interests of the Rich and well off section dominate, and nobody challenges this whatsover. Under New Labour, its no accident that the inequalities in our society are worse now than for the last 40 odd years. In spite of legislation that makes discrimination and some forms of sexual discrimination a crime, sexual discrimation is rife and well ensconsced in Public Institutions and Private Institutions all over our society.

What makes for a more equal society then is not the Law- as its application is haphazard, unequal, and subject to all sorts of possible intrepretations and appeals etc.but a variety of different policies and a sequence of measures which in total, taken together, moves gradually, over the years towards establishing a real basis for less inequality.The measure of which is not just about Income but multi-factoral in any case. Income alone is not a correct or accurate measure. Assetts. Command over resources. Land and Estates in UK and abroad- as Capital is free to move around the Globe now. Assett poor so one is not penalised by taxes, in one country and perhaps assett rich in another is no way to measure what a Govt cannot touch- or get an accurate measure of. Offshore assetts have been around for 40 odd years or more yet no Gov't as far as I can see has ever got to how this will be measured, counted or even understood the amount s of never mind tax it.


This must include Progressive rather that Regressive Tax Policies in the Taxation system. Business Ideology and the Business and Commercial sector always want huge differentials and want to keep huge ammounts of cash and benefits for themselves and their pals as this is their rewards for what they see as "efficiency and PBR. measured by profits" They have to to have more, and be able to keep more, have more rewards, have more advantages,better houses, better holidays, more flights and planes, consume more ahve more eat more and drink more, have better schools and better Education, better lives, than the rest of us, as they are the deserving rich and well off, and you lot are the undeserving poor, and touble makers that cost them so dear, and how they'd love to do without you all ! The people are a pain in the butt to them. However they've concluded the stupid bastards do pay the majority of the Taxes, that keep them and their society going so you horrible lot- the people- do have some point. Whatever the levels of Social Security, in the main,- its the poor that keeps the poor anyhow- and as long as their assetts can be hidden, tied up, exported when they want, and not taxed thats OK isnt it Its all a game isnt it ?

31 Jan 2010

Sao Paulo teachers fight casualisation


The photo shows CPERS members on the march at the start of the Social Forum meeting in Porto Alegre. CPERS has twice forced the state governor to retreat from attacks on teachers' conditions over the last two years.

Apeoesp - the biggest union in Latin America
I travelled to Sao Paulo to meet with members of Apeoesp, the teachers' union for Sao Paulo state. With around 150,000 members, they are the biggest union in Latin America.

Apeoesp colleagues explained how they faced an attack from their state governor which aims to increase the casualisation of teachers. This was to be done by subjecting teachers to an annual 'test'. The results have just come out and only about half of teachers have been told they have 'passed', threatening many long-serving teachers' eligibility for work. At best, they will only be allocated a few hours of work a week.

This attack - which is a warning to teachers in England and Wales facing our own 'MOT test' - is of course heralded as a way to 'keep up standards'. Of course, it is really about blaming teachers for problems in education and keeping teachers fearful of their jobs. Answers to a narrow 'multiple-choice test' do not measure the worth of a teacher. As the teachers' say, colleagues have gained their teachers' qualification - they should not have to now pass this annual test to prove their abilities.

Unfortunately, the struggle has been complicated by some in the leadership of the union having links to President Lula's government - who have a similar education policy to the right-wing state governors'. Lula may have been elected with a history as a fighting trade unionist, but his policies no longer represent the interests of trade unionists as they did in the past (doesn't that sound familiar too!).

The discussion was also useful to exchange views about trade union organisation and our respective school systems. Brasilian schools work three 'shifts' a day to educate all children. Union meetings certainly can't be 'after school' as they would clash with the 'evening shift'. But general meetings are held four times a year during school time and every school rep is allowed to attend. Each 'shift' has a rep, so this could be up to three reps attending per school. With school union reps in England struggling to get release time from some bullying Headteachers - and some areas finding it difficult to build quorate general meetings - wouldn't this be a good example to demand ourselves?!

Martin Powell-Davies

28 Jan 2010

Teachers in Brazil face the same attacks

At the invitation of CPERS, the 100-000 strong teachers´ union of the Rio Grande do Sul state, I have travelled to the World Social Forum in Brasil. The Social Forum gathers together a wide range of organisations and campaigns to discuss building an alternative to the ´neo-liberal´ attacks coming from many of the world´s governments.

It has been a tremendous opportunity to discuss, particularly with teachers and trade unionists, about the common battles we face against cuts, privatisation and governments who are seeking to undermine trade unions.

I have been able to explain to Brasilian colleagues about the battles teachers face in England and Wales. In turn, I have discussed their struggles - in a country where arrests on demonstrations and repression of activists are still too common. CPERS have been battling against the state governor´s attacks on trade unions (and her corruption) while teachers in neigbouring Sao Paulo state face a battle against attempts to make teachers pass a ´test´ to continue in work - rather like the threatened ´MOT for teachers´ back home.

Speaking from the platform to a meeting of 600 teachers called by CPERS to discuss íf ´another education is possible´, I outlined the struggles facing teachers in Britain, whoever wins the next election. The audience reaction to my criticism of inspectors who had little recent experience of teaching themselves showed that OFSTED-style criticism is certainly not just an English problem!

I concluded that ´another education is possible ´ but only if we mobilise trade unions and communities to fight to win it. Another - much worse - education is also threatened if we allow cuts and privatisation to take hold.

Brasil also faces national elections this year and I also attended a fringe meeting addresssed by Plinio, possibly a joint left candidate for President. Once again, I was able to bring support from trade unionists in England who - like them - are battling to challenge the privatising politicians at the ballot box as well as through trade union action.

CPERS are known as one of the best organised and most militant unions in Brasil. I hope that we can keep up links between CPERS and the NUT - and particularly with supporters of Classroom Teacher who are campaigning to build a determined Union. I distributed a few copies of the latest ´Classroom Teacher´ to CPERS members so that they could read about the struggles we face on cuts, academies and workload. Perhaps I can include a short report from this visit to CPERS in the next Classroom Teacher.

Martin Powell-Davies