Class War?


The current debate about the re-opening of schools is being played out in the press on strictly partisan lines.  A glance at today’s Guardian and the Mail  on Line provides pretty stark evidence of this.  (1)

Most of the discussion is framed as being ‘Is it safe? V What about our Children’.  Perhaps it is rather more straightforward.  Is this just a matter of class?  Of all the occupations the government is pushing to return to (or stay at) work it is teachers that are the first to have membership of the middle class.  Perhaps more relevantly they are the first to be part of a coherent, highly unionised and corporately articulate group.  Nurses and doctors would lead this list but their response (often at great personal cost) is so core to the crisis it has been virtually unquestioned. 

In a modern profession heroism shouldn’t be a daily requirement.

The arguments around how safe schools are could equally apply to the workplaces of construction workers, bin collectors, security guards and re-cycling centres but those groups do not have the sophistication offered by the NEU and NASUWT (a thoroughly modern union whose name conjures up images of chalky gowns and dusty grammar schools).

The idea that teachers are being ‘stroppy’ should be dismissed.  Teachers have the right to a safe workplace and they are lucky to be able to articulate their concerns.  If only other occupations had the same opportunity.  The decision to return to work should be a product of a proper assessment of risk and potential mitigation and not be driven by the ability of workers to act collectively to protect themselves.  Let’s be ‘led by the science’.


Philip Trendall
20th May 2020

The views express in this blog are those of the author and do not purport to represent the views of any client of Scott Trendall Ltd

(1)    20th May.  Guardian headline:  “Up to 1500 Primary Schools to Defy 1 June Opening Plan”.  Daily Mail headline:  “Teachers V Parents”.

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