England’s Education Secretary Michael Gove could learn an ‘awful lot’ from the Isle of Man.
That’s according to National Union of Teachers national president Beth Davies, who visited a number of the island’s schools and met with Education chiefs during a visit last week.
She said one of the key differences was that while teachers were held accountable for their actions here there was not a ‘culture of fear’.
‘At this moment in time I think they could learn an awful lot,’ she said.
Ms Davies said she was impressed by the standard of teaching and children’s engagement at the primary schools she visited, saying: ‘Children are learning in a really calm environment. There’s no fear of inspection.’
And she said island schools were out-performing those in England without rigorous testing and inspections.
NUT north-west representative Simon Jones said the changes in England were ‘nothing short of educational Armageddon’.
‘It’s never been so important for the Isle of Man to assert its independence and be discerning over what it allows to be imported from across.’
In terms of GCSE and A-level exam reform, the union hopes the DEC will avoid the English and Welsh systems and look to Scotland or even further afield.
Concerns teachers raised with the NUT was a fall in continuing professional development, increasing class sizes, and less funding for supply teachers. Mr Jones said: ‘We don’t want to see any of that get any worse.’
The visit took in Marown, Peel Clothworkers’, Dhoon and Fairfield schools.