NASUWT: CBI report challenges coalition education reforms
Responding to the report First Steps. A new approach for our schools by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said:
“The CBI report has recognised the important link between high-quality education systems and economic competitiveness.
“This report highlights the need for stronger investment in schools and for the professionalism of teachers to be recognised and supported.
“The Coalition Government’s policy of cutting education funding and denigrating the professionalism of teachers is out of step with what business leaders are saying.
“The CBI is right to call for a move away from the damaging system of crude performance tables which provide perverse incentives, narrows the curriculum and denies parents and the public access to quality information on schools’ strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for development.
“The CBI is also right to confirm the importance of qualified teacher status (QTS) for the delivery of quality education for pre-school children. This should be a right for all children regardless of their age.
“The Government’s attempts to dumb down teaching by abolishing the requirement for all children to be taught by a teacher with QTS will be bad for children and young people in education and bad for the economy.
“The CBI is also right to recognise the importance of parity of esteem between academic and vocational qualifications, something which the Secretary of State’s proposed English Baccalaureate fails to do.”
ENDS
Ben Padley,
Press and Media Officer,
Campaigns and Communications,
NASUWT
Hillscourt Education Centre
Rednal
Birmingham
B45 8RS
0121 457 6269
07785 463 119
www.twitter.com/nasuwtunion
www.twitter.com/Chris_K_NASUWT
-01.png){kind=spacer}