NASUWT does not rule out industrial action in campaign to protect state education
The head of the NASUWT teachers' union has urged Michael Gove to quit after delegates at its annual conference passed a motion of no confidence in the education secretary.
General secretary Chris Keates delivered a sweeping attack on Gove in the style of a report card for a pupil.
Addressing the union's annual conference in Glasgow on Sunday, she concluded with the words: "Now, at the NASUWT, we don't like to give up on anybody, but I am afraid state education is just not right for Michael. I think a managed move might be on the cards." A "managed move" is a fresh start for a child at risk of exclusion.
A resolution passed by delegates called for a campaign by all means necessary, including industrial action, to protect a "national system of state education".
It included an amendment that said teachers "have no confidence in the education policies of the coalition government". The coalition has introduced measures to allow all schools to become academies, and to allow parents, teachers and charities to set up free schools.
The resolution said the government's plans were opening up education to the private sector, leading to "inequality of educational entitlement, lack of public accountability and abuse of the system".
Keates said Gove was invited to attend the conference, but declined. Instead, the schools minister, Nick Gibb, addressed the event and said Gove was on holiday.
Keates said: "When he declined to attend, I began to reflect on why and thought that, from his point of view, it was probably the equivalent of a pupil being invited to meet their form teacher for a review of their behaviour and they know the news isn't going to be good."
Keates said Gove's decision to scrap the Building Schools for the Future programme would leave many schools in a state of "unacceptable disrepair".
"The position is so bad that Michael has even had a brush with the law on this matter," she said, referring to a high court ruling against the government over the school-building programme.
She also criticised the introduction of the English bac, a new award for pupils with good GCSE passes in English, maths, science, a foreign language and history or geography.
Keates said: "The E bacc is far too narrow for such a clever pupil – he needs a broader view of what constitutes a good education.
"Subjects like music, art, design and technology and RE are worth much more than Michael seems to think. A broad-based curriculum can really make the difference for a pupil at risk of disaffection and disengagement."
Gibb, who was heckled by delegates of another teaching union, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, at its conference last Wednesday, defended government plans to reform public sector pensions.
He said: "Over the last 10 years, the private sector has been moving away from defined benefit pensions to the much less generous money purchase schemes. We are not going to go down this route.
"We are determined… to keep defined benefit pensions in the public sector and for public service pensions to remain the benchmark standard."