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.