I fear I will always disappoint journalists like Peter Wilby (and perhaps politicians) who want to elevate image above reality.

Intrigued as I was by his criticism, tempered with a little praise, I expected some positive ideas on what I might have said or done to promote a better image of teachers in the face of the sustained onslaught by Thatcher, other Tories, The Office for Standards in Education, the media and, in its early days, New Labour.

I also wonder how much would have been printed by Mr Wilby’s colleague journalists, in the light of their less-than-voracious appetite for good news stories.

Mr Wilby seems to define anybody with whom he disagrees as a “force for conservatism”. But that is a mere slogan. Surely the more important point is whether a given policy is right or wrong. After all, a belief in the need for good discipline in schools is a force for conservatism, but very welcome and necessary all the same.

Even the author of this term of abuse, Tony Blair, seemed content to have his own Government join the same forces for conservatism in injuncting the profession to return to traditional teaching methods, not to mention his retention of many Conservative reforms.

If Peter Wilby wishes to judge my general secretaryship an overall failure, he needs to adduce a wider range of more convincing evidence than the scanty patchwork of lesser issues he “examined” (if that is the right word) in The TES (January 4, 2002).

Mr Wilby ignored my support for the establishment of the School Teachers’ Review Body in 1991. For all its imperfections, the STRB has managed to avoid any national industrial action over teachers’ pay, a record considerably better than the Burnham Committee.

He ignored the enlightened collegiate salary policy developed by the NASUWT, accepting a link between appraisal and pay. As a consequence, the NASUWT was well placed to respond positively and play a leading role in transforming unworkable proposals into the more manageable threshold payments system. This delivered an extra pound;2,000 into the pockets of around 200,000 teachers, and may well produce more over the coming years.

Mr Wilby ignored the remarkable role played by the NASUWT in 1993, successfully resisting the government-inspired high court challenge by Wandsworth over the so-called test boycott. It led directly to a workable national curriculum and testing system.

He grudgingly concedes the legitimacy of my concerns over excessive workload and poor pupil behaviour, two issues that have dominated my general secretaryship. But he ignores the fact that it was not that long ago that the NASUWT was a lone voice in the wilderness, trying to get governments to take these problems seriously.

In the last two to three years opinion has changed remarkably. Virtually everyone now acknowledges that they constitute grave threats to the recruitment and retention of teachers. At long last the Government seems prepared to offer serious help. What should I have done? Ignored them and talked up the image of the profession?

Mr Wilby rightly refers to the enmity politicians feel towards the profession. Perhaps it is directed towards their unions rather than teachers themselves, although we say the same things.

I have always told politicians exactly what I think about their policies. We all have our faults, politicians included, and they have until recently consistently failed to acknowledge our concerns which were more often than not related to resources and time rather than the reforms themselves.

Governments inevitably find unions inconvenient for we do our best to ensure that our members’ interests are properly considered. If, taking the main evidence into account, journalists judge me a failure, then so be it. But I take comfort from the fact that more and more of the NASUWT’s concerns are being acknowledged by the Government and others.

And then there is the ultimate acid test of membership. The NASUWT has grown over my term from 120,000 to around 200,000. Perhaps that figure speaks for itself.

Nigel de Gruchy is general secretary of the National Association of the Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers and is to retire at Easter