ATL

ATL president warns government's plans for education are not tinkering round the edges but a wholesale dismantling of state education

From teacher training, curriculum and assessment through to inspection, funding, academies and free schools, the coalition government is overhauling almost every aspect of state education and doing so at a rapid pace.

It was only at last year's annual conference that the then ATL president Lesley Ward told delegates that successive governments had been stuck on a merry-go-round as they introduced 54 pieces of education legislation over four decades.

One year on, and a change of government later, Andy Brown will say: "Education reform is spinning out of control. The coalition government's deep and rapid changes are not a simple case of tinkering round the edges. They are a wholesale dismantling that will change the education landscape as we know it.

"Ever since the 1944 Act, we've had a national education service that's been locally administered. Now, with the advent of academies and free schools, the government is removing the body that's responsible for administering, servicing, supporting and building our schools. They are allowing each school to operate as an individual satellite, free to set its own teaching standards, curriculum and working conditions, but without any control.

"Academies and free schools are to be funded by the state, but everything they do will be independent. This is the disappearance of state education."

Turning to the current state of austerity in Britain, Andy Brown will say: "In a time of hardship we do our duty. We're told we're all in this together. But the squeeze isn't being felt equally and the cuts aren't being dealt fairly. This government isn't treating us all the same and it's not grasping the nettle by going after those who've put us in this mess; it's going after those they think won't put up a fight.

"They tell us that our pensions schemes are unsustainable, yet they haven't even valued them. They just know that by attacking public sector pensions, they can wipe a large chunk off the national deficit."

He will say: "I didn't join the profession to make money; I joined it to make a difference. I firmly believe that there is no more honourable, noble or privileged a profession than being able to take young minds, hearts and spirits, to engage them and fill them, and to send them on their way as tomorrow's citizens.

"When I joined our profession, I made an unspoken pact with my state in which I eschewed the financial opportunities of my contemporaries who would earn much more than me in the understanding that my job was a calling, and that I would earn a modestly comfortable salary and then, at the end of my career, I would have a modestly comfortable pension."

Andy Brown will conclude: "I made that pact in good faith; I trusted my state and now feel betrayed. That trust has been broken."

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) is an independent, registered trade union and professional association, representing approximately 160,000 teachers, headteachers, lecturers and support staff in maintained and independent nurseries, schools, sixth form, tertiary and further education colleges in the United Kingdom.

2. ATL exists to help members, as their careers develop, through first rate research, advice, information and legal advice.

3. ATL is affiliated to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) and Education International (EI). ATL is not affiliated to any political party and seeks to work constructively with all the main political parties.