Teachers have too often been treated as a “political enemy to be briefed against” over the course of the pandemic, the shadow education secretary said today.
Speaking at the Confederation of School Trust’s annual conference, Kate Green also said the government’s attitude towards the profession during the Covid crisis had done a “gross disservice” to all those who work in schools.
“The last decade has seen real-terms cuts to pay, which have left teachers thousands of pounds worse off in real terms; top-down structural changes that have pushed up workloads and driven teachers from the classroom; and even in [the] last year, the teaching profession and its representatives have been treated too often by the secretary of state, not as allies in meeting a national challenge but as a problem to be solved, or a political enemy to be briefed against,” she said.
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“That does a gross disservice to you and to all those who work in schools.
“It ignores the huge role you play in enabling every child to reach their potential and that, in the last year, you’ve gone above and beyond all that could have been expected of you.”
Ms Green also hit back at Gavin Williamson’s suggestion from this morning that all schools should become academies.
“While we have world-class schools with world-class leaders and staff, our school system is fragmented, opaque and overly complex, to the detriment of pupils and wider society,” she said.
“Instead of one school system, we have several. Schools operate as their own admissions authorities, have different levels of accountability to their community and to government, and there is no consistent role or voice for parents.
“They’re incentivised to compete against one another and to operate admissions and exclusions policies that serve the interests of some children at the expense of others. Governance and decision making have become detached from the local community.
“The secretary of state’s answer to this, this morning - every school in an academy trust - is based on a simplistic dichotomy between strong trusts and failing maintained schools.
“The reality is more complicated, with all the evidence demonstrating that it’s the quality of teaching and school leadership - not structure - that determines a school’s success for its children and pupils.”
