Amidst the coverage of the NUT strike earlier this week readers may have missed the statement by Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party. Here it is:
Teachers are understandably angry about a whole host of issues that are currently devastating our education system, and they are standing up for their pupils’ future as well as their own.
They’re defending the professional standing of teachers against Michael Gove’s push to have unqualified staff teaching in academies and free schools.
Performance-related pay threatens cooperation and team-work among teaching staff, reflecting the same approach being taken between schools, which are being urged to compete against each other for pupils and results, despite the fact that there’s strong evidence that cooperation between schools produces better results. That’s been demonstrated in Brighton and Hove, where the Green-run council has significantly improved GCSE results with a cooperative approach.