Teachers Take Up Cudgels

Rushden Primary School teachers are leading the east midlands in an attempt to bring the “Primary Cause” to the fore. They have been joined by colleagues from Kettering, Wellingborough, Irchester, Finedon and Irthlingborough – and a newly-formed group is now making a survey on “discrimination against primary school teachers and the primary school.”

The Rushden and District Primary Teachers’ Group is the first of its kind outside Manchester or Birmingham. Its intentions are, to work constitutionally, through the teachers’ unions, to bring the ‘primary cause’ to the fore, and to the notice of MP’s, councillors, and the general public.

Membership, open to union or non-union primary school teachers, is growing rapidly; the first meeting was attended by thirty teachers, and this number has since doubled.

It is hoped the organisation will attain a total membership of more than one hundred, when the possibility of starting similar groups in other county towns may be considered by Rushden members.

Resolution

The following resolution has been passed: “This meeting believes present discrimination in salaries against staff is the greatest single threat to unity within the profession, and it demands that this discrimination be completely removed.”

Secretary Mr. F. Dyment, headmaster of Newton Road Junior School, told the “Echo” that the discrimination between teachers in primary schools and those in secondary modern and grammar schools existed in salaries, establishments, allowances, buildings and in general amenities.

A survey was being made to study these various differences between the two types of teachers, to determine how they were arrived at, said Mr. Dyment. He claimed that better opportunities existed for secondary teachers although they had the same training as those in primary schools.

Why had teachers in Rushden taken the lead?

Mr. Dyment said: “The original stimulus came when we were addressed by delegates from Manchester. Rushden teachers are probably very much aware of the basic difference which seems to be growing between the two types of schools.”

He stressed that they were not fighting against their colleagues in the secondary schools; they simply wanted to raise themselves to the same status.

Committee

He added that the teachers’ unions were not against the formation of such groups – those in the Rushden one belonged either to the National Union of Teachers or the National Association of Schoolmasters.

The committee comprises thirteen teachers. Mr. R. R. Lawrence, the headmaster of Rushden Alfred Street Junior School, who is the chairman, explained that once the aim of the group – to remove all forms of discrimination – had been achieved, it would no longer function.