A union has claimed teachers in the island have been left ’afraid’ to raise issues of contention.

In a letter from the National Association of Head Teachers to Chief Minister Howard Quayle, the union says there is a divisive culture in the island’s education department and teachers fear of reprisals for speaking out.

The union has written to Mr Quayle in response to his New Year address, released in the Manx Independent (January 3) in which he looked forward to a busy year ahead.

In the letter, shared with the Examiner, the union claims that head teachers ’have been subjected to a divisive culture from the Department of Education, Sport and Culture in recent years’.

The union said it has left heads ’afraid to speak out, in fear of reprisal, losing their jobs, or not gaining promotions’. And the letter goes on to cite the resignation of both the head and deputy head teachers from two island primary schools.

The NAHT adds: ’Forums for educational professionals to have a voice in the policy and practice of education have been increasingly reduced in recent years.

’The government has swept the allegations of bullying against the minister under the carpet by refusing to release the report into the investigation that took place.’

Education Minister Graham Cregeen MHK was cleared of bullying by a formal investigation last year.

However, the government has so far refused two requests by Isle of Man Newspapers to release the report.

The union has also criticised Mr Quayle, saying that ’education does not feature at all on our Chief Minister’s priority list for the new decade’.

The union shared its response to Mr Quayle with the Examiner, in which NAHT criticised that ’there was not one word about the need to invest in a first class education service in order to achieve his aim of attracting "active high net worths" to live on the island’.

The NAHT adds: ’He talks about protecting the vulnerable, people with social issues and supporting those with mental health issues.

’Teachers and support staff in schools do all three of those things, alongside educating our children for the future challenges they will face, all on a daily basis.

’Teacher and support staff are at the lowest ebb they have been, having had to deal with cuts for many years that have affected front line services and a real pay erosion over the last 10 years.

’The Department of Education, Sport and Culture will dispute the cuts. However schools on the island have less budget allocated to them than schools across in England, where there is a funding crisis.’

One of the areas that the union said it has seen cuts is in special needs budgets which it said has been ’masked by devolving the budget to individual schools’.

The NAHT statement says that the DESC is presenting ’misleading’ figures over the teacher-to-pupil ratio by including head teachers to provide a better figure than in England.

The union said that teachers are giving up their lunch times and other time outside of school hours without being paid for doing so.

The letter ended: ’The very least the Chief Minister could have done was to thank them for all their efforts, as he did with other public service workers.’

The unions are in dispute with the department over pay. They are currently balloting members over what action they should take and will hold a meeting on January 28.