Quote:Quote:
By Kate McCann, Senior Political Correspondent
8:38AM GMT 06 Dec 2015
Schools offered extra funding to hire and promote gay and transgender teachers as critics describe it as "profoundly misguided"
Schools are being offered £30,000 extra funding to hire and promote gay and transgender teachers, it can be revealed.
Critics have described the policy as "profoundly misguided" and warned it will oblige head teachers to favour some staff over others, regardless of their ability.
They say the policy fuels discrimination and erodes the fundamental principles of equality because it ignores skill and talent.
"I would abolish the whole thing, I think it's profoundly misguided and the money could be better spent on providing more teachers for children from disadvantaged backgrounds."
David Green, the founder of think-tank Civitas
ADVERTISEMENT
Schools can get a grant of up to £30,000 per project to provide training to existing teachers or recruit new staff to plug gaps in diversity, such as low number of gay or older teachers or staff with children.
The fund encourages applications on the basis of so-called protected characteristics, defined by the Equality Act in 2010.
These include age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
In one case a school won funding to recruit more male staff or women who had given birth because it has too many senior female teachers who do not have children.
The same school also applied for help to employ older staff because an "audit identified the increasing number of young staff promoted to middle leader positions".
In another case a Catholic school applied for funding to provide specialist training in religion for senior staff.
Schools can apply for the money to plug the so-called ‘diversity gaps’ by providing extra training, but a condition of the funding is that teachers must be promoted within 12 months.
David Green, the founder of think-tank Civitas warned the Department for Education backed scheme is bad for children because they are not getting the best teachers based on skill.
Mr Green told the Telegraph: "The assumption behind the Leadership Equality and Diversity Fund is that there has been discrimination if there is not proportionate representation of any of the above groups in leadership roles.
"It is highly likely that this would include every school in the land. A law against discrimination is at least understandable if it relates to an ascribed characteristic that the individual can’t change (such as race), but it makes no sense if the protected characteristic is chosen."
He also warned that work-related abilities should be the most important quality when recruiting senior staff.
• School debt doubles in two years, figures show
• Retired Cambridge academic refuses to help Israeli girl with school project 'until there is peace in Palestine'
Mr Green added: "If you go one of these courses the Head and Deputy are under obligation to promote you, which may not be best for the children.
"I would abolish the whole thing, I think it's profoundly misguided and the money could be better spent on providing more teachers for children from disadvantaged backgrounds."
David Nuttall, a Conservative MP, said the fund is "absolute nonsense".
He told the Telegraph: "Discrimination, positive or not, is still discrimination by its very nature.
"It means someone somewhere is being discriminated against and I would always argue for a true equality where you don't have positive discrimination at all, where you treat everyone equally.
"The problem is that by having an artificial mechanism in place that guarantees one group special treatment over another not only is it patronising to that group, but by definition it means that others who might be better qualified for promotion are discriminated against."
Labour's shadow education secretary Lucy Powell warned the money could be better spent.
She said: "We support moves to diversify school leadership so that it is more representative of the communities schools serve.
"However given the teacher shortage crisis in this county it is important that this funding is properly accounted for and is not being used simply to help plug gaps given the failure of Ministers to train enough teachers and at a time when more teachers are leaving the profession than ever before."
The scheme, run by the National College for Teaching and Leadership, called for applications targeted specifically at a lack of black and minority ethnic teachers and women, but some of the funding has been spent on recruiting more men.
Under the scheme schools were encouraged to apply to the £900,000 fund for the first time this year, following a pilot scheme which ran in 2014/15.
One school applied for cash to boost the number of male primary school teachers while another aims to target low numbers of both men and women at different stages of the profession.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said the scheme aims to support "under-represented groups", such as ethnic minorities, within senior teams in schools in England.
He added: "Ensuring there are excellent leaders in our schools, to raise the standard of teaching and achieve the best outcomes for their pupils, is a key part of our ambition of extending opportunity to all.
“But good school leadership teams should also reflect the diversity of the teaching profession."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/edu...-told.html
At what point do you say, fuck it, I don't want to contribute to this system anymore?
![[Image: dodgy.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/dodgy.gif)
