We beat Gove once - we need to do so again

Teachers, parents and pupils have all expressed relief at Education Secretary Michael Gove's recent U-turn on English Baccalaureate certificates, which would have replaced GCSEs in some subjects.

Gove finally listening to sense was a victory for everyone who campaigned against this ill-thought-out reform, including the National Union of Teachers (NUT).

EBaccs were condemned by the teaching profession, bodies representing the arts, sport, business, technical and design groups and Parliament's education select committee.

What drew together such a wide and disparate coalition was Gove's vision for education.

Having been roundly defeated previously on a return to O-levels and CSEs last year, he'd returned to the sheep-and-goats approach to secondary education in which "academic rigour" was all and creative and vocational education had very little place with his EBacc proposals.

This was based of course on his assumption that creative and vocational subjects are not rigorous - it's interesting to note that all the jurisdictions which Gove claims to admire due to their international rankings in OECD Pisa tests put creativity and problem-solving at the heart of the curriculum.

If we are to have an engaged population capable of asking critical questions and thinking creatively about society and life, young people have to experience a curriculum in schools that provides those skills and abilities.

Even business interests agree with us on this.

Neither should it be that an assessment system leads and drives the curriculum.

We have to ask some fundamental questions about the purpose of education, its content and how we assess and record young people's strengths and successes as they progress through the education system.

Gove would do well to talk with and listen to members of the NUT who have useful advice and guidance to offer on this.

Instead, the minister's modus operandi is to plough on regardless.

At least on EBaccs he has been stopped. But there are many other matters on which the Secretary of State needs to be stopped as well.

Gove claims he is giving autonomy to schools. In fact many things are being centralised.

On one area, however, where national prescription was wholly appropriate, Gove is going in the opposite direction - that is teachers' pay.

Many changes to the pay system have occurred over the years.

But since 1920 it has at least been a national system with incremental progression.

Gove wants to abandon that for individual pay based on annual appraisal.

Those who understand pay systems know that performance-related-pay is at best a mixed blessing.

Those who understand education know that it cannot work for teachers.

Pay based on crude numerical targets of children and young people's "outcomes" are no way to pay teachers.

The government is trying to sell the idea that this is about "paying good teachers more," but at a time when budgets are being cut any "more" for one teacher will mean less for several others, all calculated on the spurious basis of targets.

With one in five teachers leaving the profession year after year and those who remain suffering plummeting morale, no wonder there has been a widespread loss of confidence in the Education Secretary.

Now is the time to make Gove pause on pay.

At the start of January a YouGov survey commissioned by the NUT showed a crisis of morale in the profession, with the majority of teachers feeling untrusted by government and unconvinced by Gove's education policies.

Teacher morale is dangerously low and has declined dramatically in recent months.

Teachers disagree with government policies on secondary qualifications and the phonics test in primary schools, among other issues.

But their views are not sought on any changes and the consultation on the new curriculum is likely to be cursory.

With the profession under such attack and criticism, the mandatory national pay scales are one of the few things that have kept a career in teaching attractive.

Removing incremental progression and linking pay ever closer to appraisal will anger teachers.

In our YouGov survey 77 per cent of teachers rejected the idea that pay should be at the discretion of the head teacher or governing body, and that rises to 79 per cent of teachers working in academies.

Teaching is one of the best professions in the world, but it is also one of the hardest.

Teachers should not be subjected to persistent criticism and undermining of their pay and conditions.

The survey's findings paint a very sorry picture and are a damning indictment of coalition government policies.

Government proposals to end mandatory pay scales for teachers will be disastrous for education.

They will hit teacher recruitment and retention, demotivate teachers and waste time and money in schools.

Having a national pay structure also promotes transparency, fairness and equity in teachers' pay arrangements.

Taking pay decisions at the school level makes it much more difficult to ensure salaries adhere to equalities requirements, opening up the prospect of significant problems.

There has been no equality impact assessment on the proposals, even though there has been previous evidence of lower success rates in pay progression for black and ethnic minority teachers.

Teachers continue to face excessive workloads, which are inimical to the real job of teaching and learning.

And pay is not keeping up with the cost of living.

By 2014 teachers' pay will have fallen by close to 16 per cent in real terms since 2009.

Teachers are paying more in to their pensions, and for longer because the retirement age is going up. And when they do eventually retire they will receive a smaller pension for their efforts.

The School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document will reach schools in April.

Decisions on school-level pay policy will be taken very soon.

But the government should be warned. Teachers do not take strike action lightly but our profession is being torn apart by reforms which have little to do with standards, or evidence, or a good education for all.

The time to sit back has ended.

• Christine Blower is general secretary of the National Union of Teachers.