Fred Jarvis faced two main accusations when he applied to be general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in 1975: that he had never been a teacher and that he was too right-wing. He overcame both to spend 14 years as leader of the country’s biggest teaching union.
The Sixties had been something of a golden decade for education, with new universities opened, schools built and teaching methods developed. To cap it all, in 1963 Jarvis organised a national campaign that persuaded the leaders of the three main political parties to make education a priority. Nevertheless, few expected him to reach the top. “He’s not a conspirator,” a fellow union executive told The Sunday Times in 1985 of the man who would plan
