Cuba Day 1

After some delays at Heathrow and Charles de Gaulle due to fog over Paris, we set off this morning on our ten hour flight to Havana. Given the connections with Cuba's innovative literacy campaign, I thought it would be a useful opportunity to re-read Education for Critical Consciousness by Paulo Freire.

In these two essays (Education as the Practice of Freedom and Extension or Communication written in 1965 and 1968 respectively), Freire is concerned with the liberatory potential of education but also the necessity for education to be critical and democratic if it is to realise this potential.

Cuba Day 0

So, I'm sat in the hotel at heathrow airport, ready to board a flight tomorrow to Havana to find out more about education in Cuba, a country which defies all the supposed wisdom of the global education  'reform' movement. Cuba has one of the highest standards of education in the world, despite spending a fraction of the amount the UK or US do, resisting the market reform mania that has gripped the rest of the world, and still being subjet to a comprehensive economic blockade by the world's most powerful country.

What Cuba has achieved is nothing short of a miracle.

Broaden and Deepen our Funding Campaign in Autumn

The National Executive last week discussed the need to both broaden and deepen our campaign over funding in the Autumn term, following our successful strike action earlier this month. There was agreement that we need to step up the campaign in the Autumn, reaching out to parent organisations, deepening the engagement of our members and increasing pressure on government, including through further strike action if Justine Greening is unwilling to act, as her predecessor was.

One amendment to the proposal was passed, calling on the Executive to link our Primary Assessment Campaign with the campaign on funding and terms and conditions. Two amendments, both of which sought to specify in one way or another what strike action would be decided on at the September Executive, fell.

Engaging the Community: The Campaign Kicks Off!

Week #1 Meeting #1

Today, it felt like our white paper campaign had kicked off in earnest locally with the first of 10 meetings for Reps & activists  in District 18 (or so I thought). The first meeting was in Windsor & Maidenhead, where a new committee has recently been elected after several years of no activity in the area. Much of the discussion focused on how to engage the wider community in opposition to the white paper.

National Executive: General Secretary's Report

We are now only into the third week since conference and the union has been working at full pace to deliver material for the ballot and the wider campaign against the white paper. Christine thanked the union staff for all their work.

Professional Unity - Seize the Moment

A key theme around the NUT Conference this year was professional unity and this is likely to be true of ATL Conference as well. Already, the press are picking up on moves towards unity between the two unions (see for example here and here).

As Chair of the Professional Unity Committee of the NUT, I wrote a number of articles on the subject for different publications which were distributed at NUT Conference this year. The text of these articles can be found on a separate blog here and sum up my thoughts on the subject.

Teaching by Numbers vs Professionalism in Education

There was a lot of discussion at this year's NUT Conference about the impact that the increasing obsession with data has on education - the pressure towards teaching by numbers - and of teacher professionalism as the alternative to this.

Most teachers would describe themselves as education professionals but what does this actually mean?

Children Are More Than a Score

We’ve heard about the damage that high-stakes standardised testing is doing to our children’s education. We’ve heard about the impact it has on their self-esteem, on their mental health. So there’s a pretty obvious question to be asked.

Why, when the weight of educational research is against them, when the mass of parents are against them and when the professional judgement of teachers is against them, why would this government continue in its dogmatic obsession with standardised testing?

A Crucial Time for Education

As I prepare to travel to London for the National Executive today and tomorrow, I am struck by what a crucial time this is for education.

We have a government using a mantra of austerity to progressively underfund schools and sixth form colleges, whilst enforcing the mass privatisation of schools by an act of parliament, and changing the very nature of education through high-stakes standardised testing and hyper-accountability. The past couple of months have shown this in the extreme. At primary level, we have seen new assessments introduced which impose unrealistic and unhelpful targets on young children in a narrow range of skills. What is more, children will be expected to sit these tests in a couple of months, leaving teachers wondering how they will explain to children and their parents that they are no longer doing well but are now below 'national expectations' - that the government has arbitrarily deemed their child a failure aged 7 or 11.

International Issues

At today's Executive meeting, Christine Blower reported on the excellent work done by Justice for Columbia in bringing together leaders of the FARC and the Columbian government.  JfC are looking to bring FARC leaders to South Africa, northern Ireland and Britain as part of the peace process.  The NUT will support the visa application process for FARC leaders.

The General Secretary then reported on the case of 4 teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico who have been arrested on charges relating to protests against regressive education 'reform' which could see them spend up to 40 years in prison. The Union has written a formal letter of protest to the Mexican Embassy and offered solidarity to the arrested teachers.

Finally, Christine reported that we have received a letter from Grant Shapps, Minister of State at the Department for International Development in response to our campaign against British aid money being spent on education privatisation in the global south.  In the letter, Shapps defends the use of taxpayers' money to fund private education companies who are aggressively 'opening up' education markets and threatening state education in some of the worlds poorest countries. The reply also admits that DfID is currently paying fees directly to private shool operators for some 22,000 children, amounting to a massive direct subsidy of global edu-businesses.

Education at What Price? Politics, Power & Privatisation

Over the past 5 years, we have witnessed the fragmentation of our entire education system.  This process has moved at an incredible pace.  In May 2010, there were just 203 academies, all of which were sponsored.  By January 2015, this had reached 4404, representing around 13% of primary schools and 55% of secondary schools.  Whilst there is strong evidence that the rate of conversion is slowing, this is a staggering change in under 5 years.

Conference on Privatisation in Education Globally

Today's NUT International Solidarity Committee meeting agreed a proposal to hold a conference on the privatisation of education globally.  This will be an extension of the work the Union is already doing around the Global Education Reform Movement and its impact on our children's education.

International Matters

The NUT International Solidarity Committee met yesterday and discussed a number of issues, including taking forward our work with Edukid and the General Union of Palestinian Teachers to produce curriculum materials which explore what life is like for Palestinian children suffering poverty and occupation. Further detail on this project is available in this post.

National Executive: General Secretary's Report

At today's NUT National Executive meeting, Christine Blower reported on NUT involvement in the Centre for Labour And Social Studies (CLASS), which held its 2014 conference at the weekend.  Christine was pleased to report that she sat on the steering committee of CLASS for the Union and that the President has spoken at the conference.  She recommended that members who hadn't seen the work and publications of CLASS yet look them up.

Challenging the Global Education Reform Movement and building solidarity with Palestine

This morning's meeting of the NUT International Solidarity Committee looked at developing our international work in solidarity with Palestine, in challenging the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) and in relation to our Annual Conference in April of next year.

Developing our International Work

The NUT International Solidarity, Peace & Disarmament Committee met today.  The committee looked at progress on the recommendations from the Union delegation to Palestine (see here).  A report of the delegation has been produced which can be downloaded here.

Learning from Each Other

Every day, we face more stories of Michael Gove's plans to 'reform' our education system.  Whether it is testing from age four, 10-hour school days, pay deregulation or the creation of unaccountable new schools with no responsibility to hire qualified teachers, things are certainly not improving.

Global Education 'Reform': Resistance & Solidarity

At its meeting on 11th December, the International Sub-Committee of the NUT National Executive agreed to organise a joint conference with the Teacher Solidarity Research Collaborative on the theme of teacher resistance to the Global Education 'Reform' Movement.