NUT News 17
June 2001
An open letter to Estelle Morris
Ms Estelle Morris MP Secretary of State |
DfEE Sanctuary Buildings |
Great Smith Street |
LONDON SW1 P 3BT |
Dear Estelle
I am delighted to send you my congratulations on your appointment as Secretary of State.
You now hold one of the highest offices of State and, as a former teacher, are uniquely placed to realise your aspirations and vision for schools and the education service.
With increased investment in education, teachers will look forward to more resources to enhance teaching and learning. In welcoming the return of the Labour Government, indicated our desire to work in partnership with the Government in its development of policies and initiatives that better equip teachers and schools. In particular, we need to work together towards making teaching attractive as a profession. We have already made considerable progress in establishing the current review of workload and good practice. We hope that this will lead to a new contract which will limit workload and allow teachers to devote their energies more effectively to teaching. In conditions and in their salaries, teachers will took forward in anticipation to improvements which will encourage more to enter teaching and lead to fewer leaving the profession.
There is much in Labour's prospectus with which we can work together, positively for progress. There are proposed developments, however, that we believe would be harmful to the aspirations we share for children and young people. We will use our best endeavours to support those policies that we believe will improve the delivery of education; we will, as you would expect, seek to dissuade you from those initiatives that we fear will harm teaching and learning. On behalf of the National Union of Teachers, I wish you every success as Secretary of State.
Best wishes
Yours sincerely
Doug McAvoy Nut General Secretary
National Union of Teachers: Online for teachers, for education