NUT adopt controversial measure over class sizes

Teachers could send children home if class sizes exceed 27 pupils under proposals ratified at the NUT annual conference in Harrogate.

The controversial measure could see pupils sent home following the amendment which provides that members should refuse to teach over-size classes. The move could see union members adopt industrial action to enforce the ruling.

However, the measure does not have the support of the union's general secretary Doug McAvoy who felt that it could "alienate parents".

Mr McAvoy went on to accuse the government of failing to keep its 1997 election pledge to employ an extra 20,000 teachers. He said that only 11,940 recruited were qualified teachers and all but 968 would have been hired anyway to cope with the rising school population.

"Not 20,000 extra, but only 968! We are used to government spin but this is something else. I say to Charles Clarke, first find the missing millions (in funding) and then find the missing teachers," he said.

NUT members also spoke out against plans that would see classroom assistants shoulder more administrative responsibility in an effort to free teachers up for more teaching time. Conference delegates voiced their fears that the move would see an enhanced role for assistants at the expense of teaching standards.

Bill Greenshields, a member of the NUT's national executive, warned the conference that there would be a two-tier staffing situation.

"It's going to be the kids who are already suffering from disadvantages who will be forced to accept teaching by assistants," he said.

"We need to set a bottom line for the government - a qualified teacher for every class and no doubling up by unqualified staff."

However, Bruni de la Motte, UNISON national officer in education services, said that the proposals contain no threat to the role of teachers.

"NUT members are worried that classroom assistants will undermine their positions, but this is simply not in the terms of the national agreement," she said.

"Teaching assistants play a vital role in the classroom, and we're glad that finally they're getting a clear career structure from the agreement. But only at the very highest levels, and within a very clear framework, would an assistant stand in for a teacher, and this would be for a very limited period only.

"Responsibility will always lie with the teacher and the head of school - that's very clear."

Elsewhere, at the NASUWT’s Annual Conference in Bournemouth, the union's national president, Terry Bladen, has called for replacing maths with numeracy lessons to ensure that students learn important skills – and to avoid forcing "those who do not enjoy the subject to take it as far as GCSE level".

Mr Bladen said that by allowing pupils to drop maths at Key Stage 4, it would help overcome the problem of recruiting specialist teachers and allow more time in the curriculum for other subjects.

(GMcG)