ABSTRACT
The teaching profession in the 1980s is faced with enormous challenges: first and foremost, there is the need to protect the interests of the children at a time when educational cuts are biting, the battle for resources is accelerating, and teacher redundancies are gathering momentum. Locally, the teachers have one powerful weapon which they use to good effect: nearly all education committees of local education authorities contain teacher representatives, and the vast majority of these are elected by their unions. Whatever the differences between the various teachers’ unions, their community of interests clearly outweigh the reasons for a continued separate existence. Although there are a considerable number of ex-teachers in the House of Commons, the influence of the teachers unions in parliament is less strong. In the majority of areas the National Union of Teachers dominates, and sometimes occupies all the seats accorded to teachers on education committees.
