Sunday 8 May 2016

The Government Climbdown and the NUT Strike


Yesterday, the government announced a significant climbdown in relation to forced academisation. The white paper will no longer include proposals for legislation to force the conversion of every maintained school by 2022. This is a significant victory both because it withdraws one of the worst clauses of this paper and because it shows that, when teachers, parents and governors act together, we can win real concessions from government.



However, the government has replaced this legislation with sweeping powers for the Secretary of State to order the conversion of entire local authority areas in one go, and retains the aim of converting all schools by 2022. In addition, the other provisions of the white paper remain, including abolishing QTS, removing parent governors, and the threat to teachers pay and conditions.

In light of this, we are continuing our campaign against the white paper and the forced academisation of our schools and removal of parent voice.

We also believe that every teacher should be entitled to decent national pay and conditions, regardless of whether they work in a maintained school, an academy or a sixth form college, and that school funding should be increased to make this possible.

We are therefore proceeding with our ballot for national strike action to protect teachers' pay and conditions and to increase school funding. This will open on 23rd May and we are asking all members to vote YES.

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