It was with some dismay, but not total surprise, that I read Biddy Passmore’s article on Geoff Lennox (“The fast track to swapping spheres”, TES, March 17).
I am now convinced that The TES has given up all pretence of objectivity in its reporting of the crises-ridden FE sector. Here we have yet another uncritical article presenting the “poacher turned gamekeeper” as a figure for admiration.
I find it disgraceful that part-time lecturers in FE - those who so often experience insensitive treatment, late payment and low levels of job security - should be faced with a cut in their rates of pay. But, of course, there are “megabucks” in cutting the pay of FE lecturers. Many principals (or should I call them chief executives?) will be earning a bit more than Pounds 10 per hour in the brave new FE world (on the same page as the Lennox article - principals’ pay up by 11.6 per cent) since incorporation, with one poor soul having to get by on Pounds 83,500. It’s a tough old world for some!
So let’s forget about equal opportunities, since most part-time lecturers are female. Let’s get on with casualising the labour force by introducing cut-rate agencies by the score. We’ll be much more “efficient”, won’t we? But I think we’ll also have to forget about the quality of education that so many of our students experience.
MIKE MOORES
College lecturer
10 Linkfield
Welwyn Garden City, Herts
