http://education.independent.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=624036

By Richard Garner, Education Editor
27 March 2005


Teachers are facing floods of complaints from parents and pupils as a result
of a growing compensation culture in schools, a union leader revealed
yesterday.

Hilary Bills, the new president of the 267,000-strong National Union of
Teachers, told her union's annual conference in Gateshead: "The no-win,
no-fee culture has encouraged pupils and parents to question teachers'
actions in a way hitherto unknown.

"The almost certain suspension of a teacher accused of any wrongdoing sends
out the wrong message to those who want to cause mischief.''

Mrs Bills said the balance between the rights of pupils and teachers "were
too often tipped in favour of the pupil''.

Figures supplied by a second teachers' union - the National Association of
Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers - show that, out of 1,000 abuse
allegations levelled against its members in the past decade, only a handful
have resulted in a successful court prosecution.

Mrs Bills, headteacher of Holyhead Primary School in Sandwell, West
Midlands, also blamed the rigid national curriculum in schools for increased
poor discipline.

She said: "I don't believe it is a coincidence that the level of disruption
in schools has risen at the same time as the curriculum has been narrowed
and testing has increased.''

Ofsted, the education standards watchdog, has said the percentage of
secondary schools where behaviour is good has dropped from 75 per cent to 67
per cent in the past two years.

Meanwhile, the conference voted overwhelmingly in favour of one-day strike
action over the use of classroom assistants to take lessons instead of
teachers. Delegates claimed it was providing "teaching on the cheap''.

The motion also called for strike ballots in individual schools if heads
insisted on allowing classroom assistants to cover for absent teachers.

Delegates warned of further strike action if negotiations over their
pensions break down. Ministers have said they want to raise the age of
qualifying for a full teacher's pension from 60 to 65.


--
Men are everywhere that matters!





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