If it often seems as though it’s hard to find a teacher with a good word to say about the Tories, it’s because so few exist. A new YouGov poll for the NUT (based on a representative sample of 826 teachers) shows that just 12% would vote Conservative in a general election, compared to 43% for Labour and 6% for the Lib Dems.
Evidence of why is supplied elsewhere in the poll, which found that 79% believe that the government’s impact on the education system has been negative, and that 82% of teachers and 87% of school leaders are opposed to the coalition’s expansion of academies and free schools. In addition, 74% say that their morale has declined since the election and 70% of head teachers do not feel trusted by ministers to get on with their jobs. Finally, 91% of teachers do not believe publicly-funded schools should be run for profit (a policy Michael Gove has said he would consider introducing under a Conservative majority government) and 93% believe academies and free schools should only employ teachers with Qualified Teacher Status (as Labour has argued).
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