TEACHERS fear their status is being eroded by a "narrow focus on managerial targets", a union leader has claimed.
Speaking ahead of the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), director Mark Langhammer outlined the reasons why his union was taking industrial action.
All main teaching unions are angry, having rejected a pay offer that would see staff receive no across the board pay rise for 2015/16, and a 1 per cent cost of living uplift for 2016/17.
The ATL has been engaged in action short of strike since January. This includes refusing to cooperate with school inspections and Key Stage assessment arrangements.
It has also urged members to ignore a request from the Education Authority (EA) to carry out an end of financial year 'stock take' in which "each individual item of stock should be physically counted and the details recorded on the stock count sheet". This can include items such as printer toner, envelopes, copy paper, pens and folders.
This week, teachers lashed out comments from a top official that their action in a pay dispute was harming children's education. EA chief executive Gavin Boyd wrote to teachers pointing out they received better pay than classroom staff in Wales and England.
The ATL will discuss issues including pay and workload when members gather in Belfast.
In response to the letter from Mr Boyd, the union said it had produced "a forensic response, opening the lid of the teachers' dispute on pay, accountability and workload".
ATL director Mark Langhammer said the decision to take action was triggered by the 0 per cent pay `settlement'.
"However, that decision was more of a `lightning rod' in respect of general unease about workload, hyper-accountability, teachers feeling that their status was being eroded by the narrow focus on managerial targets, the erosion of professional autonomy, loss of discretion, and the profession of teaching turning into an exercise in ‘drilling for stats’," he said.
He added that teachers were unlikely to be persuaded to change their stance based on the letter issued by Mr Boyd.
