THE recent advice of the National Union of Teachers to its members regarding registering with the GTC (telling them not to volunteer to pay the GTC subscription fee) is depressing.
As a classroom teacher with 26 years’ experience, with no union axe to grind, and who was independently elected on to the GTC, I found the half-truths of the “advice” deplorable. In fact, 44 of the 64 council members are teachers. The other 20 members give the council a much broader perspective and base of experience. The GTC is not some “super-union” of teachers.
The advice attempts to continue the divisions within the profession. We should be at the dawn of a bright new era in teaching with the formation of our own governing body. We should be supporting it through its infancy, not trying to beat it to death in some self-serving power-struggle.
The GTC hasn’t proved itself yet. But I can tell you from the inside that there is a huge amount of work going on that will, in the long run, benefit teachers enormously, and give us back our pride in what can be, and should be, the best job in the world.
Martin Scotchmer Elected GTC member Carpenter’s Cottage Allowenshay Hinton St George Somerset
