Commonwealth mourns UK teachers’ leader Steve Sinnott

The Commonwealth Secretariat says it was “shocked and saddened” by the 5 April 2008 death of Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in the UK.

Mr Sinnott was Convenor of the Commonwealth Teachers Group and Chairman of the Commonwealth Working Group for the Professional Development of Teachers.

“A champion of the protection of the rights of all Commonwealth teachers, he gave outstanding support to the formulation, development and implementation of the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol (CTRP) adopted by Ministers of Education in 2004,” said Dr Henry Kaluba, Acting Director of Social Transformation Programmes Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Dr Kaluba conveyed condolences to Mr Sinnott’s family and to the management and staff of the National Union of Teachers.

In 2003, as Deputy General Secretary, Mr Sinnott addressed education ministers in a special session on international teacher recruitment at the 15th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (15CCEM) in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2004, as newly appointed NUT General Secretary, he hosted the ministerial meeting which adopted the Protocol at the NUT national convention centre at Stoke Rochford Hall in Lincolnshire.

Mr Sinnott spearheaded the first Commonwealth Teachers Forum to be held concurrently with a ministerial meeting at the 16th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (16CCEM) in Cape Town, South Africa, in December 2006.

Secretariat Links:

• Education

Related Websites:

• National Union of Teachers - UK