Institute for Learning (or Leaving?!) Pt. 2
FE, IfL, In The News Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
Apparently, the IfL fiasco is going from bad to worse. Firstly, FE teaching staff are being served with ultimatums – ‘sign-up or lose your job’. Once signed up, however, full-time lecturers with decades of experience but without the necessary hoops, or those with overseas qualifications, are being told in droves that they are no longer up-to-scratch and merely classroom assistants despite their knowledge and service. It does not stop here, however. If you are lucky enough to recognised as a member i.e. holding a post-grad qual then you are entitled, and believe us you couldn’t make this one up, you are entitled to pay £45 per annum for the privilege. In short, the Government has set up another quango, entrusted its running to a private organisation who in return are charging people for the right to join an Institute that nobody wants or has heard of. And those who refuse? Loss of teacher status. Time to join a union.
I for one am refusing to register with the IFL. As a much needed science lecturer (when science lecturers are in very short supply) I challenge the government to expel me and punish my students, some of whom are rightly annoyed as they have already had several teachers this year and, indeed, some have been without a required science teacher for some time. (I just took up a new position after returning from abroad). When will this crazy government learn that these stealth tactics – building up an unknown institute overnight and threatening teachers with a big stick to join it without explaining what good it is for is utterly disgraceful. Then to offer the generous offer of making it free for some (wow!). Think how much money will be racked in by future membership fees. Where will this leave the unions – will they be dis-empowered? The whole thing stinks and the government can stuff the IFL where the Sun don’t shine!