Labour's new Section 28?

[marshlander]

Damn I'm mad ... again!

The General Teaching Council for England is the professional body charged with setting standards of conduct for teachers in England. In effect it's a kind of watered-down General Medical Council. All teachers have to pay their thirty-odd quid a year if they want to continue to be registered as a teacher and keep their jobs.

Principle 4 of the code has hitherto required that teachers ‘proactively challenge discrimination’ and ‘promote equality and value diversity in all their professional relationships and interactions’ before they can be registered.

It seems that after complaints from hundreds of the religiously afflicted (the claw of the Christian Institute at work again) the GTC has caved in to demands to water down the standards relating to fairness and equality.

No longer will teachers be required to promote equality and diversity proactively. They'll simply have to "demonstrate respect" for it. There is a difference; in my view it is a big difference. In practice it means that teachers will not actually be required to do much in the way of positive intervention to tackle homophobia and transphobia if they don't feel like it. It means that their good Christian consciences will be untainted when it comes to avoiding dealing with homophobic incidents. It also (I suspect - though I've not seen it in print) means that the GTC will not be required to tackle directly homophobia in Islamic schools. I can just hear all those civil servants breathing huge sigh of relief. They've just avoided having to face a fatwa.

The spineless GTC, backing down to the god-botherers' bullying, is a retrograde step, specially given all the recent strides we've made towards fair treatment. There is evidence that students and teachers in "faith" schools already suffer more homophobic attention than in non-alligned schools. This is just going to lay our community open to more bullying.

Be on your guard people. See how easily our hard-won successes are still so fragile.

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[princealbertofb]

I agree with you wholly, honey... It's not a won battle, at all...

[marshlander]

I've just seen more information on this in the National Secular Society newsletter:

The paragraph originally required (changes in italics): Registered teachers

• Act respectfully towards all children and young people, parents, carers and colleagues, regardless of their socio-economic background, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, race, religion or beliefs
• Take responsibility for understanding and acting on their obligations under legislation and school policies relating to equality and diversity, bullying and inclusion and access, seeking clarification if necessary
• Proactively challenge discrimination, stereotyping, and bullying, no matter who is the victim or the perpetrator; promote equality and value diversity in all their professional relationships and interactions
• Contribute to the creation of a fair and inclusive school environment by taking steps to improve the wellbeing, development and progress of those with special needs, or whose circumstances place them at risk of exclusion or under-achievement
• Help children and young people to understand and appreciate different views, perspectives, and experiences and develop positive relationships both within school and in the local community
  
• Are sensitive to the socio-economic and cultural context in which they are working and issues in the local community that may impact on the wellbeing, development and progress of children and young people. [this paragraph completely deleted]
  

This, the Christian Institute decided, was a threat to "religious liberty" in the sense that Christian teachers might have to express "support for lifestyles of which they disapprove". They subsequently orchestrated a dishonest and panic-mongering campaign among their fellow evangelical Christians, and now the GTC has watered down the protection for gay and non-Christian children and those from "unconventional" backgrounds to this:
Registered teachers

• Act respectfully towards all children and young people, parents, carers and colleagues, whatever their socio-economic background, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, race, religion or belief.
• Take responsibility for understanding and complying with school policies relating to equality of opportunity, inclusion, access and bullying Address unlawful discrimination, bullying, and stereotyping no matter who is the victim or the perpetrator
• Help create a fair and inclusive school environment by taking steps to improve the wellbeing, development and progress of those with special needs, or whose circumstances place them at risk of exclusion or under-achievement
• Help children and young people to understand different views, perspectives, and experiences and develop positive relationships both within school and in the local community.
  

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "This is a truly disgraceful capitulation on the part of the GTC to religious bigotry. Gay children — and even those perceived to be gay because they might be effeminate or tomboyish — now have a level of protection removed from them. Most teachers will be compassionate and recognise when children are vulnerable and suffering bullying because of perceptions about their sexuality or because of their religion. But the very people who are likely to be disapproving and to make the situation worse — that is to say, bigoted evangelical teachers — have now been given carte blanche to add their own disapproval to the bullying.

[princealbertofb]

NOT ON !!!!!!