Teachers condemn coalition

Last month’s annual conference of the NASUWT teachers’ union was critical of the coalition government’s attacks on health and safety regulation in schools.

A motion to the conference condemned the watering down of the School Premises Regulations, which removed many minimum standards for schools, such as a minimum temperature of 18°C, and the reclassification of schools as low-risk environments despite the threat to health from the presence of asbestos in many schools.

Other vital protections against overcrowding in schools have also been removed.

General secretary Chris Keates said: “The coalition government has continually trivialised the importance of health and safety, claiming that it has imposed unnecessary burdens on schools.

She said that the simple truth is that the deregulation of health and safety was part of the coalition’s strategy to make schools more financially attractive for their privatisation.

“This is an example of where ideologically driven policy takes precedence over health, welfare and needs of pupils and staff.”

The NASUWT runs an annual Big Question Survey which asks for teacher’s views and experiences of workload, stress, pupil behaviour, empowerment as well as government reforms.

The 2014 survey found that nearly two out of five (38%) teachers said their buildings were not fit for pupils and over a third (34%) said they were not fit to teach in.

www.nasuwt.org.uk/Whatsnew/NASUWTNews/PressReleases/DeregulationHealthSafetyPupilsAtRisk