Defeat the education cuts
Defend teachers’ rights!
The education system is in crisis. Teachers’ pay and conditions are being slashed and the quality of education offered to students up and down this country is being eroded.
Teachers net wages have now been cut to such an extent that in any given month we are getting paid for three weeks and working the last week for free.
Our supposed glorious pension scheme lambasted by the media is a fallacy. As the Trident Report shows, teachers pay more into their pension than we ever get out of it. Young teachers in non-permanent positions have no security or say in what happens for fear of losing their job at the end of the year. They are being overloaded with work to plug the gaps in their schools left by the moratorium.
New teachers will have to start on 14% less due to cuts to the starting wage, and a lower start on the pay scale. The new FAS work placement scheme will see graduates having to work in schools for free for up to nine months.
Students with special needs are cowardly being attacked as their budget is cut and the number of Special Needs Assistants reduced.
Pupil-Teacher ratio is on the rise along with class numbers as budgets are squeezed, drastically reducing the attention that each student can receive.
The new redeployment scheme forces a very uncertain future onto some teachers and creates a very unsettled life. This list could go on and on.
The leaderships of the TUI, INTO and ASTI have failed in their duties with huge repercussions for their members and in turn the pupils across the country.
Many motions will be passed at the teachers’ conferences over Easter. But voting on motions has no effect if the leadership who are supposed to represent us, are ineffective and the leaderships of all the teaching unions are well and truly ineffective. Their weak policy of social partnership and urging members to lobby politicians is not working, it is merely appeasing the government. A real change is needed.
Teachers in all unions need to get organised. We need to build opposition groups within all of the three unions, around a fighting programme based on opposing the education cuts, defending jobs, pay and conditions and getting extra resources for education not less!
If you are a teacher who is interested in finding out more about how you can get involved in reclaiming your union then contact the Socialist Party today at info@socialistparty.net.
