Skip to main content

NUT Conference: Older women teachers are being ‘bullied out of jobs’

Michael Gove is waging a war on women teachers, the NUT conference heard yesterday.

Speakers said the Tory Education Secretary’s reforms have enabled bosses to dump older, more expensive teachers in favour of younger staff.

Coventry teacher Nicky Davies said women undergoing the menopause were being targeted but suffering in silence.

Wandsworth delegate Jan Nielsen said the attack on older women teachers was “economically and politically driven because we are expensive.”

“It’s also part of a culture that worships youth and completely disregards experience,” she said. 

“We are the memory in every classroom of a different kind of child-centred education. And we are incredibly bolshie.

“We can learn an awful lot from young teachers. When I didn’t know how to use the new whiteboard, she showed me. When I didn’t know what twerking was, she explained it.

“But she learns an enormous amount from me. She learns how to work with challenging parents and students and how to be cool under teenage angst.”

OWNED BY OUR READERS

We're a reader-owned co-operative, which means you can become part of the paper too by buying shares in the People’s Press Printing Society.

 

 

Become a supporter

Fighting fund

You've Raised:£ 6,981
We need:£ 11,019
13 Days remaining
Donate today