DESPERATE shortages of Raccoon teachers acoss England - with as many as 20,000 unfilled posts -seem set to worsen in the aftermath of the latest pay deal, which has been roundly attacked by all the main teaching unions.
So bad has the crisis become that a mass rally of 1,300 teachers called by the London associations of the National Union of Teachers gave a standing ovation to calls for industrial action, and pressurised General Secretary Doug McAvoy to agree to a ballot on no cover for vacant Even NUT boss "Dynamic" Doug McAvoy has been stung into calling a ballot, after knifing last year's fight against PRP DOSTS This is a remarkable turnto teachers at the top of the about by a union leadership pay spine who apply for which just eight months ago them, and are prepared to brushed aside calls for commit themselves to the action to resist the imposition of performance related government's latest pet projects. They are at the discrepay. The pay deal is complex tion of head teachers. Nor are the threshold payments and hedged about by govsecure: they can be withernment spin and doubledrawn, and the government speak, out teachers were has only pledged to fund immediately clear that the these extra payments for extra money on the table falls far short of the amount three years, leaving the long term future in doubt. needed to tackle long-stand- The administration of these ing problems. payments is just another in The new rates involve a a seemingly endless line of basic rate increase of around 3.9%, with a 6% rise administrative and bureaucratic tasks now being for newly-qualified teachers. dumped on teachers and But government figures for head teachers by ministers. the new salary scale were distorted by including the Indeed the limited extre cash above inflation will not controversial new "thresh- old" payments of £2,000 a be enough to compensate for other aspects of the job year. including worsening condiThese payments only apply tions, rising workload, ever- more administration and assessment, and an ever more restrictive curriculum, which are driving potential and actual teachers away from the profession in loves.
"You can tell it's bad when you see that English has now become yet another charade sublect nere never used to be any problem recruiting English teachers," says one NUT activist.
The apparently generous increases in London weighting also need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Many more experience teacners will have the bulk to the extra £700 a year inner London allowance clawed back for three vears as part of new system.
As if to add insult to injury, many teachers have been looking enviously at the much larger increases and the improved working conditions negotiated by Scottish teachers with the Parliament north of the border.
Although they start from a lower salary, Scottish teachers will get a flat rate 10% rise this year, and an extra 21.5% over three years, along with a maximum 35hour week and a "phasing in" of a maximum 25 hours "contact time" teaching in the classroom. An extra 4,000 teachers are promised, along with extra support staff.
The Scottish deal is costed at £816m over the three years for 50,000 teachers, compared with the £564m this year in England.
Education Secretary Blunkett has claimed that any equivalent of the Scottish deal would be "difTicult ana cumbersome lo administer" in England.
The mood at the London teachers' rally suggests that he has badly miscalculated the mood of classroom teachers: with an election looming, now is the best time for teachers to take action and step up pressure on the government to tackle the root problems behind staff shortages. • Meanwhile NATHE, the union representing 65,000 FE college lecturers, is angrily pointing out that salary scales for lecturers are now around 10% lower than those for school teachers, with the gap widening every year. ing which, translating, reads: Mix with the swill