Education

Blunkett panics

EDUCATION secretary David Blunkett is panicking over his plan for performance related pay for teachers. He is worried that he will not be able to get head teachers to enforce the scheme.

So the government wants to force senior teachers to assess which of their colleagues will be eligible for higher pay. Schools minister Estelle Morris wants to create a new duty for senior teachers of "assisting the head teacher in carrying out threshold assessments of other teachers".

This is a recipe for cronyism. The announcement has further fuelled anger in the staffroom just as the largest teachers' union in England and Wales, the NUT, sends out a survey over possible forms of action to oppose the market-driven pay scheme. NUT union members should vote yes to all the forms of action.

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