Teaching: Profession or Trade
By JOHN VAIZEY 'THE dominant fact about education since the war has been its rapid expansion. Expen- diture on education is something like nine times What it was in 1938 and the number of teachers is about I00,000 greater. The result of this has been to change the relative standing of people connected with education in the com- munity. A Director of Education before the war, except in the largest boroughs or counties, was concerned mainly with elementary schools and a few secondary schools and his office was a tiny one. Now he runs a very big operation— the biggest in local government—which affects intimately the lives. of all but very few of those Who live in his area. Similarly, the Ministry of Education, formerly on a level with the Post Office, is now the biggest civil spending Depart- ment.
Consequently many judgments about educa- tion must be made in the knowledge that people Who are taking the decisions have unexpectedly found themselves taking bigger decisions than they were trained to take; have found them- selves fighting unaccustomed battles about issues Which are not only important to themselves but vital to the community at large. The passionate Pleas of Tawney and others for education to be taken seriously have, at last, been accepted. There is a new spirit but old machinery.
It is in this context, I think, that the break- down of the Burnham machinery needs to be thought about. Inevitably the place of teachers' unions in modern life is an issue of considerable Public importance. They are the most promin- ent and almost the largest of the white-collar unions. These organisations form the most rapidly expanding section of trade unionism and the way they arc organised and the view they take of their role will affect the course of trade unionism for many years. When Ernest Belau developed the TGWU he set the pattern for trade unionism and Labour politics for thirty years. What is now going on in the white- collar unions could be as important in the next thirty years.
The teachers are organised in a number of Unions The National Union of Teachers is the biggest with a large staff and considerable financial resources. Its strength is drawn mainly from the primary and secondary schools, but tt has representation of many forms of educa- tion in its ranks and on its executive. Its General Secretary is one of the four leading figures in education, and the present incumbent, Sir Ronald Gould has many claims to be judged the wisest and most far-seeing educationist around. It is unfortunate, perhaps, that the NUT's Case, as seen through the press, is often presented as that of virulent hotheads seeking more and more Pay regardless of their professional status _i:iand of the public good. The NUT undertakes 40 considerable programme of informing public ellInton about education and raising the pro- :e.salonal and civic competence of teachers them- selves. BY far the greater part of their annual expenditure goes on ordinary professional tasks, far removed from the kind of industrial agita- tion which has recently hit the press.
The other unions in the teaching profession are small organisations representing special, high- status groups like grammar school mistresses, grammar school masters, grammar school head- masters, together with three unions covering higher education—the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions, the Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Edu- cation, and the Association of University Teachers.
The other union—the National Association of Schoolmasters—covers roughly the same con- stituency as the National Union of Teachers, but excludes women. It seeks to outbid the NUT in the violence of its campaigning and has grown astonishingly in the last few years.
The National Union of Teachers does not, therefore, represent all teachers by any means; but it does, to a very large extent, keep the conscience of the teaching profession, because it is alone concerned on any large scale with promoting the general interest of teachers and taught. In this broader, statesmanlike approach it works closely with the smaller professional organisations whose field of action is really limited by their very small resources. The NUT is, however, handicapped by an ambiguity in its role and, since this is fundamental to the whole white-collar situation, it is worth paying a little attention to it.
Because it plays a large part in forming edu- cational policy, the NUT has to perform all sorts of professional services for its members and for education as a whole. It has been, for instance, the major supporter of this year's Campaign for Education, through its energetic publicity officer, Mr. Fred Jarvis. In order to develop this side of its activity—what might be called its statesmanlike face—the NUT main- tains a professional journal, The Teacher (which is rapidly improving), and is driven more and more into supporting research of all kinds, and taking part in policy discussions about the whole future of the education service.
On the other hand, many of its members join the NUT because they want to get more pay, and so, year in, year out, it has constantly to press for increased wage awards. Because of the structure of the union and because of its rivalry with the NAS, there is always a tendency for the more responsible members of the pro- fession to be overruled and for intense militancy to be adopted, a militancy which immediately obscures the statesmanlike side of the union. At the moment, particularly, the dichotomy is acute. The teachers feel themselves to have been singled out for the application of the Govern- ment's wages policies and their valued—prob- ably over-valued—negotiating machinery has been broken up.
Consequently they are in a very understand- able huff and arc reacting in much the same way to their difficulties as the railwaymen are re- acting to the Beeching proposals. At the same time, however, the whole future of the educa- tion service is undergoing the most fundamental revaluation. The argument for local control and finance is seen to be far weaker than was thought. Education now has to maintain national stan- dards. It is a matter for national public debate and the teachers themselves have been major proponents of national standards for salaries, class-size and other things. It is essential that they should participate fully in the creation of new educational policy. Whether they will be able to do this in a situation where militancy is the order of the day is a moot point.
The parallel with the medical profession at the time of the introduction of the National Health Service is quite striking. The 1948 National Health Service is known as 'The Con- sultants' Charter.' It had the effect of giving large salaries and high status to the consultants organised in the Royal Colleges. The general practitioners, through the British Medical Asso- ciation, were initially very successful in screwing large sums out of the Ministry of Health as a condition for their participation in the Health Service. Over the years, however, their bargain- ing power and their relative status have sunk and the authority and control of the consultants has been seen to increase year by year.
Partly this loss of bargaining power by the ordinary doctors may be explained by the with- drawal of Dr. Charles Hill to other things; but it could be argued with some justification that the situation as it now exists was inherent in the structure of the Health Service as it was created at the end of the war.
The same sort of situation is in danger of developing in education. The great mass of teachers, with relatively ordinary qualifications, and bargaining through the NUT and the NAS, have, by and large, done fairly well out of the post-war Burnham Agreements. At the moment, by their militancy—wholly understandable though this militancy may be—they are letting the case for professional status go by default. At the same time, however, the Minister is seeking to give prestige to the highly qualified members of the profession who tend to be organ- ised outside the NUT. The result could be a reinforcement of the split in the teaching pro- fession at a time when the fullest and deepest understanding between the various groups of teachers is urgently necessary if the reform of the education service is to be wisely pursued. It is for this reason, I think, that many would like to see a very considerable strengthening of the statesmanlike side of the NUT activity even though, in the short run, this might lead to the loss of members to the NAS.
It would be a tragedy if Sir Edward Boyle, by his unnecessary quarrel with Sir Ronald Gould, has unintentionally had the effect of destroying a large part of the statesmanlike work which Sir Ronald has done since he took office.
The weakening of the Ministry of Education by the recent removal of so many of its senior administrative staff has undoubtedly led to a decline in ministerial standards of judgment. This puts an added responsibility on the teachers, not to allow themselves to be goaded into atti- tudes which in the long run can only do harm by dividing their profession and giving power to those whom they distrust.
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