Industry News
NUT president calls for private schools to be nationalised
Posted on 25th March 2008
Bill Greenshields, the president of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has called for private schools to be nationalised in order to 'level the playing field' for all children.
The NUT has a tradition of being opposed to independent education and is dubious of Labour's scheme to replace failing state schools with academies partnered by private sector sponsors, according to the Times.
Speaking at the union's annual conference in Manchester yesterday, Mr Greenshields said the government and teachers should "consider our own direction of travel – from private to public, towards bringing all schools into the state sector," the newspaper reported.
He quoted the headmaster of private school Wellington College, Anthony Seldon, who has said in the past that an "apartheid" exists between the state and private sector.
However, Mr Seldon told the Times that he had been misquoted and that the only way for state schools to improve is to become more independent, rather than private schools being sucked into the public domain.
Delegates to the NUT conference also voted to strike over class sizes, after it was revealed that state primary schools have average class sizes of 26, compared to just 10.7 in independent schools. 