Older Teachers being bullied out of schools to save money

The NASUWT teaching union have highlighted the growing occurrence of older teachers being `bullied out of schools.` A recent report has disclosed the fact that older teachers are put under far more scrutiny than their younger colleges. The reason for this shocking age discrimination seems to be older teachers generally costing more than their younger counterparts. If you have been in the profession for three or four decades, you will likely have accrued up a sizeable (and well earned) wage increase.

NASUWT, which is an acronym The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, was founded in 1976, when the NAS and UWT merged. It works as a trade union for teachers throughout the UK, and is a TUC-affiliated body and a vital resource to anyone in the profession. Members of the union have initiated a campaign to stop age discrimination, voting to put a motion that will highlight the point at this year`s annual conference in Belfast.

It might seem incredible that older teachers are being forced out of schools, but the general secretary Chris Keates has said that this sadly is indeed the case.` It appears that they are being put under greater scrutiny then their younger colleagues, with their lessons being observed more frequently, and any written work - planning and marking - being inspected with more assiduity than younger teachers`.

Mr Keates went on to explain some of the methods used to coerce teachers out of the profession: `It could be by increasing lesson observations. It could be putting them on what are euphemistically called `support programmes`, which most teachers read as being the first stage of going into a capability procedure.`

`They will tell us that these are anything but support programmes, and that they`re not designed to help them but to put them under pressure so they`ll leave.`

`I remember one headteacher telling me she had actually stopped going to local meetings of headteachers because she was getting really concerned that the only discussion was people swapping anecdotes of what strategies they`d used to get rid of staff they didn`t want.`

The motion put forth by NASUWT mentioned the increase in the retirement age of teachers, and also what is alarmingly known as the `work until you drop` culture. The document also pointed out how many teachers who are being effectively forced into early retirement will suffer `serious financial hardship`.

The annual conference takes place in Belfast between the 19th and 21st April. I can only hope that the motion is made strongly, and sensibility prevails. What with the recruitment crisis, and a recent report published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) revealing that teachers do more unpaid overtime than any other workers, one wonders how much more the profession can be squeezed.

I was a teacher myself for many years, and I`m appalled at these disclosures. Many teachers give their whole working life to the profession - what a way to treat them, as they approach retirement, to try to squeeze them out of the profession they have given so much to. As stated in the opening paragraph, the reason for these mercenary tactics are apparently financial. Of course we are still in the iron grip of austerity (and when will that ever end?), and cuts have to be made to all public sector jobs - this I can understand. What I cannot understand is why teachers who have wealth of knowledge and experience are being forced out of the profession. There is an old maxim, which goes something like `the teacher learns as much as the pupil.` It may sound a little cliché, but there is more than a grain of truth to this: a teacher will be learning and expanding their proficiency during every lesson. They will be developing themselves, learning new methods of teaching and understanding different pupils` needs. There really is no substitute for a great teacher who has spent decades in the profession - they will have the experience and understanding that only comes after conducting hundreds of lessons. That these knowledgable teachers might be bullied out, in order to save money, is a sad state of affairs indeed.