The General Secretary of the Association of School and College
Leaders, has warned that the brewing crisis in schools and
colleges can only be solved if the Secretary of State for
Education reopens talks with unions and resolves the pay dispute.
Addressing members of ASCL, NAHT, NEU, NGA, UNISON at a joint
lobby of parliament today (Tuesday 20 June), ASCL General
Secretary Geoff Barton also called for to immediately publish the
STRB’s report and to ensure that education is adequately funded.
He said: “The reason we are here is because we know there is an
extraordinary brewing crisis in our schools and our colleges. We
are here because of a crisis of being able to recruit, and retain
and to fund. This is an issue that will not go away. It will only
be resolved by talking. The longer you leave that, the more
attitudes are going to harden, the more parents are going to
notice that somebody who is called the Secretary of State for
Education appears not to give sufficient attention to education.
“We need to adequately fund education. We have to see education
as an investment. Whether young people are learning skills,
whether they are learning knowledge, all of these things matter
and any nation that is serious about education would have it at
the heart of its mission. We have to invest in young people. We
are here because education matters, because we want to save our
schools and because we are hurtling towards an autumn term where
there is going to be unrest in our classrooms unless the
secretary of state talks.
“We are also hurtling towards a general election. As soon as
parents start to hear more clearly that the only people who
appear to be standing up on behalf of education are we the
profession, they are going to look to the government and say:
‘It’s simply not good enough. You have let us down and in
particular you have betrayed some of the most vulnerable young
people by not investing.’”
