ePolitix.com talks to Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, about its manifesto: 'A good local school for every child and for every community'.

Question: Can you tell me a bit about the National Union of Teachers?

Steve Sinnott: The NUT was formed in 1870 and we're the oldest teachers' organisation. We're also the largest teachers' organisation not only in the UK but also in Europe. We recruit teachers who work in our schools, we recruit young people who come in as student teachers, and we recruit headteachers. So we have many people who we represent, from newly qualified teachers all the way through the profession.

The highlights in our history have been the continual campaigning we do for the education of youngsters from the toughest backgrounds. I think one of our big achievements has been to make sure our education system, at different moments in history, has attempted to address the needs of youngsters from the toughest backgrounds.

We also deal with issues relating to equality. While other teachers' organisations were opposing equal pay for men and women, we led the charge which resulted, in the 50s, in teachers being paid equally whether they were men or women.

Question: You have just launched your manifesto for schools in England, called 'A good local school for every child and for every community'; what are the key messages?

Steve Sinnott: What we really have to do is to treat parents as parents and youngsters as youngsters and not as consumers. The key message is that we will get more out of education system if it is based around a principle of solidarity rather than around a principle of individuality and market choice.

What we do know is that when you apply markets in education, the youngsters whose parents are from the better-off backgrounds are more motivated, and have more knowledge are the ones who will benefit most, and that goes totally against the grain of 'A good local school for every child and for every community'.

We believe that, in some of our toughest communities, a good local school, operating well, stimulating support from the parents, and more widely from the local community can really energise people and really assist in the regeneration of particular areas. In many respects it can liberate individuals and whole groups of people, that is the power of education and the power of a good local school.

Question: You mention solidarity. How can the barriers between school and home life be broken down?

Steve Sinnott: I think there is a significant history of those barriers being broken down in the sense that involving parents in what schools are actually doing. We have been able to do away with notices such as 'no parents beyond this point' and now we want to ensure that parents are involved in every aspect of a child's education.

There are schools that have run many initiatives, getting every parent to attend their parents evenings, involving them not just in fundraising, but in making some of the wider decisions about what their schools should be like. We want parents to identify what they consider to be the features of a good school, good teaching, and good learning.

We then want to get the whole of the community to work through those ideas together. In that way, we will be allowing schools to speak for themselves and have the benefits of the proper involvement of parents and the wider community, and in the words of politicians raise standards in all our schools.

Question: You have said that you are for government proposals to raise the minimum school leaving age to 18, how do you think this will help young people?

Steve Sinnott: The schools and children in our education system were promised a school leaving age of 18 back in the early part of the 20th century, it was reiterated again very strongly as an aspiration in 1944 when we had the 1944 Education Act but politicians have failed to live up to those promises.

We think creating more opportunities for youngsters to stay on in education and training is the best way we can ensure people have the best opportunities to have a prosperous and fulfilling working life. What we do know is that those that stay on at school or in training beyond 16 are more likely to have access to the better paid jobs, the more skilled jobs and the type of fulfilling careers that many others have the opportunity of achieving.

We see this as a major step forward and something that is very welcome indeed but we have to learn the lessons of the past. In 1972, the last time the minimum school leaving age was raised, schools were not prepared for that significant change and, indeed, were not given the resources to create the type of learning environment and the type of courses that would motivate a new section of the community coming into education at that particular age.

So in the period leading up to this, schools have got to live up to their responsibility, government has got to fund these new initiatives properly, and at the same time, employers have got to live up to their responsibilities and provide apprenticeships.

For example, we have more youngsters that want to get involved in the construction industry than there are places. So we say very clearly to employers: 'Work with schools and with national and local government to raise the achievement levels of our youngsters by creating more opportunities for them that will be good for the young people themselves and good for our economy too'.

Question: What else can be done to help to ensure the most vulnerable young people receive the best possible education?

Steve Sinnott: What we have got to avoid is a type of approach that would seek to just use sticks to beat young people who don't get involved in education post-16, we have got to find ways that encourage and draw youngsters in rather than just use punitive measures. If we are in a position where we end up fining youngsters who don't get involved, we will just end up in a position where we are fining people from some of the poorest families in the community, and that would not be a sensible way forward.

We have got to have proper engagement with these youngsters, we have got to make the opportunities that are there for them very clear indeed, and we have got to make sure we have got they type of courses that will motivate a significant group of youngsters who feel that school, education and even training is not going to offer them something in the future. We have got to find ways to deal with youngsters from the toughest backgrounds, and I'm not saying this is going to be easy - it will be difficult - but we all have got to live up to our responsibilities in this regard.

Question: What do you hope to achieve from the manifesto?

Steve Sinnott: From our manifesto, we have put forward some creative ideas and we hope politicians will look to what we say, that we concentrate on the identified ways in which we can improve the quality of teaching in the classrooms and learning, we think we can best do that by improving access for teachers to quality continuous professional development.

We should be giving teachers sabbaticals so they can update and improve their skills. We have to find ways in which teachers are given a particular amount to fund their own training so that again we are ensuring that there is improved quality in teaching and therefore improved quality in learning.

We also believe it is essential to tackle the fact that in our country we have four separate education systems and that we attempt to learn little from one another at the moment. It is more likely that an education minister from England will go into schools in the US than it is for them to go into schools in Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales.

We should establish a council that looks at education in the UK and shares best practise and shares ideas. Perhaps that is such a council that can look at the type of values we should be creating across the whole of our education system to promote one of the things the prime minister wishes to address which is the idea of 'Britishness'. You can't have 'Britishness' being taught only in England. So there are things contained in our manifesto that we hope politicians will look at very, very closely indeed.  

Question: What campaigns are the NUT running in 2008?

Steve Sinnott: During 2008, we will be continuing with a number of campaigns as well as introducing new ones. We will be looking at the commercialisation of childhood which has gone far too far, and the sexualisation of adolescents and young girls.

These types of things have to stop. We have to stop major stores from selling inappropriate products which encourage the sexualisation. We have to deal with the issue of alcohol abuse amongst our youngsters. We have to have good educational programmes in this regard but we also have to stop the promotion of the drinks industry.

We have to stop the association between sport and alcohol ahead of the Olympics in 2012. Too many young children go to sports games and sport the names of alcoholic drinks on their chests when wearing their replica shirts, and we all have to live up to our responsibilities in this regard. Alcohol abuse is a big factor in young people being permanently excluded from schools, and underperforming in schools. This is a major educational and social issue and will be the focus of a campaign by the NUT in 2008.

Question: How would you describe your relationship with government?

Steve Sinnott: I think relationships with government have improved, and in many respects, are improving. We welcome the change in the nature of the Education Department into a Children, Schools and Families Department, in which we can better understand the impact of those factors beyond the control of the school that will impact upon the performance of youngsters within the school.

We share that agenda with the government, indeed we are enthusiasts for that agenda. I do believe we have got an education secretary who is committed to tackling educational and social issues that impact upon the youngsters from the toughest backgrounds and I believe that is a passion of the prime minister too.

On international matters, we are whole-heartedly behind the campaign to get all youngsters into schools by 2015. There are 80 million children in the world that don't go to school and we want to make sure that other governments follow the lead that has been given by the prime minister.

The UK government is living up to its responsibilities in this regard and the other developed countries need to follow this lead. On these issues we can stand shoulder to shoulder with the government.

What we can also say though is that in order for us to deal properly with the educational problems in our schools and educational agenda for our schools, we need to be sure we properly value our teachers and we will campaign very vigorously indeed if the government attempts, over the next three years, as is planned, to build on two years of below inflation pay increases. We will resist that very vigorously indeed.

Question: Do you have any final messages for ePolitix.com readers?

Steve Sinnott: I think we make young people the national priority and education the national initiative. Let's all work together to improve our education service for all our youngsters but at the same time too, we have to have a national programme that tackles illiteracy. Illiteracy should, within a short period of time because of a national initiative, be a thing of the past.

We are proud of our education system but we want it to be the very best in the world, which serves all sections of the community, including youngsters from the toughest backgrounds and indeed creating more opportunities from some of the harder to reach communities across the country.


You can read the NUT's manifesto 'A good local school for every child and for every community' here.