The education system as we know it is under attack. Under the last government, almost £1 billion in cuts to further and higher education were announced. If this wasn’t enough, the new government has announced that an extra £670 million will be cut from the Department of Education.
An enormous rise in tuition fees by raising the cap is looking ever more likely, whilst the city academy schemes are being speeded up over the summer, and could be matched with ‘free-schools’, taking away democracy and accountability of education.
All this is happening at a time when many are finding jobs and retraining ever more difficult to come by, and youth unemployment is at the highest ever rate since record began.
Teachers and lecturers are losing their jobs, and positions are being cut at an alarming rate – all this at a time when a decent education is more important than ever.
We note that the Nation Union of Students Conference called for a national demonstration against fees “at an appropriate time”, and that the new coalition “United for Education” – which includes NUS, UCU, Unite, GMB and Unison – has been set up to bring about a united fight against the attacks on education.
We believe that a demonstration should be called for a Saturday in the first term of 2010-11, to highlight to new students the dangers facing our education and the need to get involved in the campaign to save it.
At a local level, campaigns to stop education cuts have had enormous success when students, staff and communities have worked together. We believe a national demonstration to save all aspects of the education system from cuts and fees should be called jointly by all the education campaigning groups, student unions, trade unions and organisations that oppose what is happening to schools, further and higher education.
The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts
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