Friday 12 October 2018

Tory propaganda against teachers continues

As Angela Rayner says, the Tories "need to come clean and stop deceiving the public" over their deliberate underfunding of state schools" (Morning Star, 09/10/18). "Using misleading figures on school funding" is simply one way this government dupes the electorate, but lying is only one of its methods.
  Years of cuts have meant inevitably that schools have to reduce the subjects on offer, especially at examination level, and the latest one to suffer is music. The number of schools offering music at A-level has apparently fallen by 15% in two years, whilst research by Sussex University shows that in only 47.5% of schools is music compulsory for 13-14 year-olds, compared to 84% five years ago.
But what does the Local Government Association have to say about this? More cuts are likely because of the "pay rises agreed for teachers"! This is disgraceful use of  propaganda, with the teaching profession becoming yet again the scapegoat for government policy. 
Is it any wonder that there is a recruitment problem in the profession when teachers, who at long last have been awarded a small increase in pay, have to shoulder blame for this government`s callous policies? Ofsted ignores the problems caused by underfunding when inspecting schools, but let us make no mistake where the blame lies, and it`s not with the teachers. Ofsted and the DfE should be praising their efforts, congratulating them on their success, and promising to help reduce their workload. This might not end the recruitment problem, but it would certainly make a change!

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