Schools are not required to educate any more, they are expected to train pupils to jump through the hoops of SATS, GCSEs and A Levels so that governments can either declare their policies a success or the previous governments policies a failure depending on the massaging of statistics.

There are many dedicated teachers who give over and above for their students who have had years of pay freezes, increased pension and NI contributions and the decimation of their conditions of work.

If, as a nation, we are to survive the economic and intellectual crisis that is upon, us we need to value those who are prepared to enable our children to be the best. It is time that education stops being an object for political points scoring every few years and politicians evolve a cross party national strategy for education for the long term.

Why have you not posted my response to your article?

The last thing you need to transform outcomes for young people is a workforce that feels insecure or, frankly, battered.

In my experience, you can never match the commitment teachers give to their work with money; in truth the whole system relies on the fact that teachers do far more than they are paid to do. Anything that threatens that is not only wrong on principle, it is counterproductive in practice.

All of the Heads I have met in recent weeks hold the view that this is a deeply unhelpful policy change.

If Gove’s proposal will do the damage outlined above, we are duty bound to oppose it. The introduction of performance related pay is not an attempt to introduce “flexibility”; it is a simple attempt to keep salaries down. If there was any ambiguity about that before the budget, the Chancellor has now made the government’s intention explicit; not just for teachers but for nurses and many others. This impacts on me directly as a teacher, but as a parent it matters for my children. The PISA report on PRP schemes draws this conclusion: “in countries with comparatively low teachers’ salaries (less than 15% above GDP per capita), student performance tends to be better when performance-based pay systems are in place, while in countries where teachers are relatively well-paid (more than 15% above GDP per capita), the opposite is true.” the full report can be read here: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/50328990.pdf

The final point is that a deflationary approach to the incomes of low and middle level earners in the middle of a recession has a negative impact on the economy as a whole. This is a long term trend that predates the financial crash and won’t be reversed unless it is resisted. the TUC has produced a study of this which you can read here: http://falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/the-fall-and-fall-in-the-real-wages-people-are-taking-home I hope others will join us in resisting and that other parents will support us in doing so.

“They should be professionals like the police and doctors”, she asserts. The police are not allowed to strike so it is not a case of professionalism but restriction of contract. The doctors are still treated with a modicum of respect and apart from being paid double what most teachers are. They also are not subject to the target driven and undermining culture that teachers now are. Tut tut, please compare like with like. Perhaps you need to go back to school Mrs Morrisey!

As for the DfE spokesman who claims “Industrial action will disrupt pupils’ education, hugely inconvenience parents and damage the profession’s reputation in the eyes of the public at a time when our reforms are driving up standards across the country”. Who is he or she kidding? The reforms are all about privatising education, which will result in the opposite of driving up standards. If parents want a professional workforce then they should be paid and treated like one in the first place.

I am a teacher and a parent. I will be taking strike action and I will be supporting the teachers of my daughter when they take strike action. The fact is that our profession is under attack from a government who do not understand the demands of the job and care little or nothing for the students in our care (unless they happen to be the children of Tory voters). I work in the 6th Form Sector and have seen over the last few years the Educational Maintenance Allowance withdrawn from students in financial difficulties and a decrease in funding which has resulted in larger class sizes and diminishing resources. My colleagues and I work extremely hard to keep up with the work load to minimise the impact that this has on students – we work most evenings, every weekend and through our holidays. However, if these attacks continue our students will inevitably suffer. This isn’t just about us teachers being disgruntled over pay, this is about the whole future of education for our young people. In Finland the teaching profession is highly regarded, well paid, with good conditions of service, and every child is guaranteed a place in a comprehensive school close to their home. Unsurprisingly their children are judged to have received the best education in the world. Meanwhile in this country we are watching the dismantling of the state education system with its ideology of a good local school for every child happen before our eyes – the consequences of which will be greater social and economic divisions, leading to a less stable and fractured society.

No teacher came into this profession to make a lot of money – we are motivated by witnessing the progress of our students and feeling that we may have made a small difference in someone’s life. We should be valued for this and the Government should be listening and acting on our concerns.

Pippa