NUT: Early Impacts of Banding Prove Worrying
Tuesday, 20 December 2011 11:11 AM
Wales’ largest teaching union says the Welsh Government’s league table style banding system is having a detrimental impact on schools in Wales, as it predicted. NUT Cymru says that its members in Wales have already been making angry representations to the Union about how the banding process has been compiled and presented.
NUT Wales Secretary, David Evans said:
“It is clear that parents have looked at the league table style bandings introduced by the Welsh Government as a simplistic tool to brand schools as being good or bad. You can’t blame parents for doing that; it was to be expected. What is disappointing is that we warned the Government, before the publication of the tables, that this would happen and, sadly, we are being proved right.
“There is now exceptional pressure on the Government in Wales. It has branded schools in Wales and must now provide the right resources to ensure that its actions do not have the detrimental impact we envisaged. The Government has stated it will not be giving any additional money to schools in the lower bands, yet have not been clear about what tangible support will be made available.
“Our members are very angry about this system. There is a belief that the bandings are not an accurate reflection of school performance. They have been presented too simplistically and are going to lead, inevitably, to an unfair stigma being attached to schools in the lower bands.
“With the Welsh Government going out of its way to introduce a system that has been condemned by the teaching profession; a system which publicly undermines confidence in schools, one thing is clear; the responsibility for any failing school in future will be down to the Welsh Government’s Education Department.”
Contact: Owen Hathway, NUT Cymru, Ty Sinnott, 18 Neptune Court, Vanguard Way, Cardiff CF24 5PJ. Tel: 02920 431409. Mob: 07921146442 e-mail: cymru.wales@nut.org.uk
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