NUT leader says Kelly is not up to the job

Friday, 25 March 2005 12:00 AM

Ruth Kelly is the worst Education Secretary since Labour came to power and is not up to the job, according to the leader of a national teacher's union.

Hilary Bills, the president of the National Union of Teachers, accused Ms Kelly of "patronising" teachers and described the minister as a "huge disappointment."

Opening the NUT annual conference in Gateshead, Mrs Bills said that Ms Kelly had failed to live up to the performance of her predecessor, Charles Clarke.

"You may not have agreed with him, but Charles Clarke was somebody you could do business with, you felt that he knew the issues and he understood them," she said.

"Ruth Kelly does not come over as being well briefed. The whole way she talks is with that patronising attitude that 'I know better.'"

Ms Kelly was appointed as Education Secretary in December, when she became the youngest woman in the Cabinet.

Addressing delegates at the NUT conference, Mrs Bills accused the minister of "sweeping aside" the views of teachers in her decision to reject proposals put forward by the former chief inspector of schools to replace A-levels and GCSEs with a new diploma.

The NUT leader also said that Labour's promise to put "parent power" at the heart of the party's education policies was "patronising" and accused the government of overloading teachers with red tape.

The NUT claims that legal disputes are likely to arise over an agreement on reducing teachers' workloads because funding shortfalls mean many headteachers will be unable to implement it.

The workload agreement, which comes into effect in September, entitles teachers to take time away from the classroom to carry out administrative work such as lesson planning.

The Department for Education and Skills insists that headteachers will abide by the law as they will not want to put themselves in a position where they are taken to court by teachers for failing to implement the contract.

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