Commenting on the eve of the release of the government’s long-awaited Schools White Paper, Matt Wrack, General Secretary of NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said:

“Following a year of leaks and delays in publication, on Monday, teachers will finally be privy to the government’s plans for long term reform of education and SEND provision. Teachers’ involvement in the Schools White Paper is long overdue; though they are the bedrock of all education, their voices are conspicuously absent from these plans.

“The DfE say they wish to ‘rewire’ the education system, but the investment suggested in their proposals is barely enough to replace a plug socket. After fifteen years of austerity, which damaged the life chances of millions of young people and placed heavy burdens on the education system, schools face immense challenges. A whole range of services for families, children and young people have been run into the ground while schools, teachers and other school staff are left to pick up the pieces.

“It will take ambitious and sustained investment to dig schools out of this mess, but the investment this government has so far set out does not remotely address the scale of what is necessary to build a school system fit for the future. This is not a rewire or a reform – it is a rehash that risks placing additional burdens on schools and teachers. To identify what is actually required in schools, the voices of teachers must be heard.

“Teachers deal with the impact of austerity every day. The persistent plague of inequality has resulted in a litany of troubling pupil behaviours, falling attendance and achievement struggles. Teachers are already expected to be social workers, counsellors and security guards, and now it seems they may be required to fill other gaps in the system without adequate support. Teachers have many talents, but they cannot overcome a decade of systemic underfunding or growing SEND needs with a bit of extra training.

“The reward for teachers in all this, it seems, is to be a small increase in maternity pay. This is deeply insulting. The pitiful level of maternity pay within teaching is a national disgrace. Many areas of the public and private sector offer far better provision. We will await the full details of the White Paper but we are clear: we need national negotiations to deliver an immediate 26 weeks of fully paid maternity leave as a step towards the required rapid improvements in maternity, paternity and parental leave for teachers.”