Scrap GCSEs and give us 7% pay rise, say teachers

TEACHERS have voted to scrap GCSEs amid calls to ‘seize the opportunity’ to reform the national assessments.

Members of Britain’s largest teaching union said ‘radical transformation of A-levels and post-16 qualifications’ would ‘broaden choices’ for students.

It came as the National Education Union warned it proposes to hold a strike ballot if the government fails to meet demands for a seven per cent pay rise for teachers this year.

A pay freeze recently announced for public sector workers was a ‘slap in the face’ and an ‘insult’, delegates at the NEU virtual annual conference heard.

Christopher Denson, from Coventry, said: ‘This is our chance to set the tone in the battle against underfunded schools, underpaid educators and an undervalued education system.’

The NEU said it will campaign to restore real-terms pay to 2010 levels ‘within three years’. Kevin Courtney, its joint general secretary, said: ‘Education staff are key workers who have contributed hugely to the pandemic response, but they face another significant cut to the real value of their pay.’

Teachers also voted to replace GCSEs and A-levels, saying post-Covid reforms offered a ‘golden opportunity’ to stop ‘toxic testing’. Teachers in England will

GAVIN WILLIAMSON faced a backlash after urging teachers to get tough on pupils whose discipline would ‘inevitably’ have suffered’ due to Covid school closures. The education secretary (pictured) backed schools taking a firm stance on poor behaviour and banning ‘the scourge of everpresent mobile phones from the classroom’. But critics accused him of failing to do his homework. Geoff Barton, head of the Association of School and College Leaders union, said: ‘Heads are reporting a sense of calm and co-operation from students that is deeply impressive.’ He added: ‘Behaviour has never been

better.’

decide pupils’ grades this summer after exams were cancelled for the second year in a row because of the pandemic.

A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘Last year we announced the biggest pay rise the teaching profession has seen since 2005, with above-inflation rises to the pay ranges for every single teacher in the country.’