Press Release

Ed Balls' Speech

24 September 2008

Commenting on Ed Balls’ speech to the Labour Party Conference, Christine Blower, Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Europe’s largest teaching union said.

“No one can do anything other than welcome the Government’s commitment to tackling bullying and helping children with disabilities. Nor can the benefits of one-to-one tuition be anything other than celebrated.

“That is why it is extraordinary that Ed Balls should spoil his overall commitment to education by accelerating the expansion of the Academies programme; a fundamentally divisive move which is breaking up the local community of schools and creating disputes in community after community.

“Parents want the best for their children and in all schools they are working with teachers to achieve that aim. Emphasis on complaints is counterproductive. Where problems arise there are already procedures in place through Ofsted and via governing bodies and local authorities. New procedures would not be helpful.

“If Ed Balls is hinting that he wants to change the testing system, he should say so.
We have long argued for significant change to the current high stakes and damaging approach to testing, which, uniquely, children, parents and schools in England have to endure.”