Young Teachers Cannot Get Mortgages

Young Teachers Cannot Get Mortgages: According to Dr Mary Bousted, the head of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), performance related pay has led to a situation which means new teachers are avoiding taking out mortgages as they are unable to confidently predict their future earnings. {Tweet this}

Speaking at the ATL’s annual conference in Manchester, Dr Bousted said that teacher’s pay had fallen by 12% against inflation following the introduction of the new pay structure – meaning that young teachers cannot get mortgages for fear of being unable to make repayments on them. The government stated that the new pay system would allow Head Teachers to pay higher wages to better performing teachers. Both the National Union of Teachers and NASUWT protested the introduction of the new scheme through industrial actions.

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Young Teachers Cannot Get Mortgages, Says The Head of the ATL Union

Dr Bousted went on to say the introduction of performance related pay had removed a staple of the teaching professional – namely that there was an expectation that if you worked for a set number of years, you would be earning a certain wage. She described the new pay structure – and the resultant lack of clarity on future earning potential – as well as issues with overly-heavy workloads and stress as making the teaching profession ‘deeply unattractive.’ {Tweet this}

Changing tack, the ATL leader followed the discussion of mortgages and teachers’ working conditions with a criticism of Ofsted – the body responsible for ensuring standards in schools.

Having described the school inspection process as a ‘lottery’ dependent on whether or not the Ofsted team which arrives at a school is capable or ‘clueless’, she called for the organisation to ‘radically slimmed down’ and for all inspectors to be properly trained and licensed – suggesting that the body’s reputation was so tarnished that it required a complete transformation. {Tweet this}

Dr Bousted’s position is supported by a recent report from Policy Exchange, Watching the Watchmen, which called for Ofsted to drastically reduce the number of inspections which utilise inspectors from private companies.

Ofsted has recently stated that the organisation has played a major role in raising school standards over the last 21 years.

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