Teachers Strike Debate

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Department: Department for Education

Teachers Strike

Chris Elmore Excerpts
Tuesday 5th July 2016

(8 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Nick Gibb Portrait Mr Gibb
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The hon. Gentleman talks about 20,000 teachers, but there are 456,000 teachers in this country—the highest number in our history. He has been a Member of this House for a long time, and he knows that we live in a parliamentary democracy.

Chris Elmore Portrait Chris Elmore (Ogmore) (Lab/Co-op)
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This is an England-only strike. There are no strikes in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, because their devolved Governments listen to and respect teachers. Standards have increased in Wales year on year, and the gap with England is closing. Where teachers are valued and listened to, that does not lead to strike action. The Minister should follow the lead of the devolved nations in supporting all teachers.

Nick Gibb Portrait Mr Gibb
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The problem with education in Wales is that standards are behind those in this country. In fact, yesterday we were asked what advice we could give to the Welsh Government about our academies programme, our reforms to the curriculum, and our reforms of GCSEs and A-levels, which are resulting in higher and improving standards in this country. The gap, I suspect, is widening.