28 March 2008
Schools Secretary Ed Balls this week reassured teachers that their concerns over workloads would be met.
In a speech to the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers annual conference in Birmingham on March 26, Balls promised that he would not lose sight of the demands placed on teachers, acknowledging that ever-rising expectations often led to long hours.
'We must continue to bear down on unnecessary burdens, keep on improving the support available to teachers and make sure that teachers get the resources they need,' he said.
He said it was not acceptable for teachers to be covering for absent colleagues during their planning and preparation time or to be caught up with routine administrative tasks, which were taken off teachers' shoulders as part of the national agreement.
Despite the mollification offered by next year's 2.45% pay increase – above the government's 2% public sector pay cap – the teaching unions have used their Easter conferences to express their dissatisfaction with government policy.
Last week, the largest teaching union, the National Union of Teachers, voted to ballot for industrial action over pay, workload and class sizes. The usually more moderate NASUWT also threatened strike action in schools where staff oppose plans to reorganise them into academies.
NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said there were concerns that national pay and conditions and automatic trade union recognition did not apply in academies.
She added that councils were sanctioning the creation of academies to get poorly performing schools off their hands. 'It is completely unacceptable for local authorities to use school reorganisation plans as a Trojan horse to ditch their responsibilities for schools in their area,' she said.
PFmar2008
