Wednesday, May 28, 2003
The shape of things to come?
I really don't know if I'm into this blogging thing at all. It's fun to work on the site and to bring links like the real Hussein to those who might have missed it but when worrying things are happening in your workplace and your chosen society, well, it's not much fun any more. Nevertheless English teachers and parents in France might like to look at a Guardian report on the situation of schools in the UK today.
One school has already sent 700 pupils home early, but many more are being forced to issue redundancy notices. Next week is the final deadline. Unless ministers act promptly, many more teachers will be laid off. A survey of 86 of the 150 local education authorities by the National Union of Teachers yesterday suggests there could be 1,570 lost jobs in England with a further 560 at risk. Another 250 teaching posts are reported to be at risk in Wales, with the threat to support staff jobs up to three times worse. Remember this was meant to be the year of a big expansion in teacher assistants to help relieve teachers of 28 administrative tasks. Of course some redundancies are unavoidable in schools with falling rolls. But far too many flagged up this year are due to unfair budget squeezes. Ministerial attempts to shift the blame on to local education authorities have fallen flat. Even the department's own survey showed a mere 19 out of 150 councils had failed to pass on the full school allocation.
In these times of [attempted] decentralisation in France should we see here a taste of things to come in the land of liberté, égalité, fraternité?