Union head supports a teacher 'premium'

CHANGES to UK education practices will make teacher recruitment in Guernsey even harder. The issue was raised this week by National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers president Terry Bladen when he met members of the local teaching profession, including director of education Derek Neale. New national workload agreements will be phased in over a three-year period in the UK from September. Administrative tasks undertaken by teachers will be eliminated by the end of it. The amount of cover that teachers can be ordered to provide for absent colleagues will be cut. It will also guarantee them a minimum of 10 per cent of their working week without contact with children for planning, preparation and assessment. But Education has no plans to follow suit. 'If teachers know that is happening and that's what they are working with, are they going to want to come to a place where all their old problems will resurface?' said Mr Bladen. The NAS/UWT has 215,000 members across the British Isles and represents more than 60 per cent of local teachers. Mr Bladen teaches maths at a Darlington comprehensive and he is also involved in educating those with special needs. Housing licence issues, difficulties in recruiting extra administrative staff and the current situation with full employment will hamper chances of implementing a similar system to the UK's in Guernsey. 'After five years, it would appear that schools are having to get rid of very competent and well motivated staff,' said Mr Bladen. 'And where schools can reappoint, they cannot always do it in the appropriate subjects.' The two-year rent allowance for which teachers are eligible when moving to the island should also be reviewed. 'If people need it for the first two years, the chances are that they will need it beyond then. 'What's tending to happen is that people come over here on a five-year contract but leave when their two-year rent allowance period has expired.' This also made bad economic sense. Education had to fund more recruitment trips and pay for interview expenses. New teachers would also be paid an allowance to move here, plus their rent allowance for the first two years. Where people could not be replaced on a permanent basis, agency staff had to be used, which was very costly. A similar situation as exists in London should be implemented whereby a premium is paid to teachers to cover the high cost of living. Behavioural problems with children also need addressing. Mr Bladen said Guernsey did not have problems to the extent of UK inner cities. But he estimated the situation was similar to those on the mainland previously. 'Because they were not adequately dealt with in the UK 10-15 years ago, the problems escalated to an extent where some schools found some children impossible to teach.' He said that prevention was better than cure and it was no use authorities adopting an ostrich stance and burying their heads in the sand. 'It's also unfair to the children who do want to learn, because one disruptive pupil in a school can ruin the educational chances of so many others.' Education must support teachers who say that certain children should not be in school and should be dealt with outside the mainstream.