LOCAL teachers are seeking the support of parents in their battle against Government plans to introduce performance related pay.

Teachers claim Education Secretary David Blunkett's proposals to pay teachers according to the academic performance of their children are unworkable and unfair.

The local branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has been campaigning hard against the plans and local MP Hilton Dawson has gone against the Government and backed the teachers.

Brian Penney of the NUT said: "Performance related pay was abandoned as unworkable back in 1895! Yet, here we are in 1999 with a Labour Government trying to introduce something that even the Tories didn't dare do. Children are different, classes are different and schools are different - there's no objective way of finding a uniform criteria with which to fairly assess the performance of individuals. Schools are supposed to be supportive, co-operative places to learn but this measure will be divisive. Not only that, but it's also hugely bureaucratic and places another unnecessary burden on schools."

David Blunkett believes creating highly paid "super teachers" would act as an incentive to the profession and increase standards.

But even local Labour MP Hilton Dawson has criticised the plans.

He has written to the Education Secretary saying: "I oppose linking pay to performance because I consider it complex professional work which cannot be reduced to simple monetary values.

I'm also concerned that it would be difficult to reward people fairly by trying to compare their work with very different children in different situations and because I feel that the system would add to the existing bureaucratic burden on head teachers."

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