Older teachers face age discrimination, claims NASUWT (again)

April 20, 2019 Tom Heys

Teachers' union the NASUWT has again warned that older experienced teachers are facing age discrimination.

The trade union has campaigned on this issue for many years.

General Secretary Chris Keates made the announcement at this year’s NASUWT conference

Instead of older teachers being valued and their contribution to the school appreciated they are facing grossly unfair and unacceptable treatment. All our evidence shows a catalogue of older teachers being disproportionately placed on capability procedures, denied access to professional development, subject to excessive observation and scrutiny, having pay awards and pay progression withheld and put under intense pressure to leave their job. We have even had examples of overt and blatant age discrimination, with teachers over sixty being asked outright by headteachers whether it wasn’t now time for them to think of doing something else. Inequality and discrimination is rife across schools and despite being confronted with irrefutable evidence ministers still fail to act. Ministers are issuing recruitment and retention strategies to tackle the teacher supply crisis while ignoring the factors which are driving good teachers out of the profession. The skills, knowledge and expertise older teachers can contribute should be celebrated by employers, not shunned and devalued.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT

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