THERE are more than 7,400 teachers in sixth-form colleges and over 90 per cent hold the same professional teaching qualification as teachers in schools.
In December we were not told that we would not be eligible to receive the contribution. It came as something of a shock in January to discover that we weren’t classed as “teachers” any longer. To add insult to injury the Department for Education and Employmen magazine carried yet another double-page spread exhorting us to apply for our computer money. As well as the 7,400 staff in sixth-form colleges, there must be many others in further education with a full professional qualification who are discriminated against because a quirk of fate removed them from local authority control in 1993.
Miriam Stanton
Principal
Bede College
Billingham