TEACHERS could soon be moving to schools under the educational equivalent of football's Bosman transfer system if a Swindon teacher has his way.

At the moment schools must pay supply agencies a 'transfer fee' of up to £5,000 if they give a permanent job to a teacher who has done supply work with them.

Headlands School assistant head, Phil Baker, has addressed the annual conference of teaching union the Association of Teachers and Lecturers to say that the scheme should be outlawed.

Mr Baker intends to use the same freedom of employment laws that brought about football's Bosman Ruling.

Under the ruling, clubs were no longer entitled to ask for a transfer fee for players who had reached the end of their contracts.

Mr Baker said: "At the moment, if an agency teacher does half a day of supply work at a school and then applies for a job there five months later, the agency has the right to ask for an introduction fee of up to £3,000.

"I urged the conference to agree with me that under the Freedom of Employment Act, a teacher is free to move.

"It is exactly the same principal that the Bosman Ruling was based on.

"I argued that if a teacher sees the job advert in a publication such as the Times Educational Supplement, it is totally separate to what they have done with the agency."

Mr Baker is a well respected union member who last year lead the ATL's debate on teacher shortages at its 2001 conference in Torquay.

He brought a second motion to conference on behalf of teachers from Swindon and Wiltshire calling on the government to ensure LEAs are fairly funded.

Education in the town has suffered because the amount spent per pupil is among the lowest in the country.

This means that pupils in similar sized towns on the M4 corridor have much more money spent on them than Swindon pupils.

In Slough, £3,197 is spent on every pupil each year, and pupils in Reading the total is £3,055 each a year.

But in Swindon this figure falls to £2,637. Mr Baker said: "The way the figures are worked out means Swindon is completely underfunded.

"The Government has made proposals to smooth it out but my argument is that it is a postcode lottery for the amount spent on a child's education. I'm sticking up for the children of Swindon."