Former NASUWT General Secretary Dr Patrick Roach has been awarded a top honour in the King’s Birthday Honours list.
Dr Roach was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for a lifetime of service to education.
The King’s Birthday Honours are awarded by the King following recommendations by the Prime Minister or senior Ministers and awarded to those who have made significant achievements in public life and have committed themselves to serving and helping Britain.
Dr Patrick Roach said: "I am humbled and incredibly proud to be granted this honour by His Majesty the King.
"It has been my privilege to have been afforded the opportunity to devote my career to education and in the service of NASUWT members, teachers and head teachers, whose commitment, work and dedication every day continues to inspire, shape lives and make a world of difference."
NASUWT National President Wayne Broom said: “This honour is truly well-deserved and I know NASUWT members will be delighted that Patrick’s contribution to education and defending the profession has been recognised at the highest levels.
“Patrick has not only been a staunch defender of working rights for teachers but his campaigning against racism in the workplace has been vitally important and clearly this has not gone unnoticed.”
Dr Roach was elected as General Secretary of NASUWT in April 2020 and stepped down from the role in April this year. He was previously Deputy General Secretary for ten years before that.
The son of Jamaican immigrant parents, he grew up in Walsall in the 1970s and has spoken of how he faced racism at school on a daily basis. He is married with two children.
In his adult life, Patrick was a teacher of politics and sociology in further education and was a researcher and lecturer in education, social policy and equalities in higher education.
He later joined NASUWT and headed up the union’s education and equalities work before going on to become assistant general secretary and then deputy general secretary.
He has served in a number of voluntary roles as a school governor and in supporting the provision of supplementary education for African Caribbean children.
Dr Roach became head of the union in 2020 at the start of the first national lockdown just as the global covid pandemic began.
He led its members in unchartered territory as schools and colleges, teachers and head teachers adapted to one of the most challenging post-war periods in education to provide for the nation’s children, often at great risk to themselves before a vaccine was developed.
He has led the union during an extraordinarily challenging period for education and stood up for the profession in the face of cuts to school budgets and to teacher pay.
As head of the TUC’s Anti-Racism Taskforce, Dr Roach was instrumental in leading Britain's trade union movement in challenging racism and injustice at work.
Patrick was also heavily invested in campaigning for education and teachers' rights around the world, and between 2010 and 2019 served on the Executive Board of Education International where he worked to advance trade union and human rights activists in countries including Bahrain, Colombia, Myanmar, Turkey and Zimbabwe.
