We the undersigned members of the National Union of Teachers National Executive wish to express our wholehearted support for, and solidarity with, the national day of protests and walkouts being organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts on November 24th.
The student demonstration against fees on November 10th has provided a huge boost to all those organising to fight cuts and defend public services. The turnout on that demonstration was the most effective response possible to all those who claimed that young people were apathetic and unwilling to fight.
We hope that the day of action on the 24th will be a huge success and reinforce that message. It is clear that many thousands of sixth formers and other school pupils are planning walkouts on November 24th. These young people will be the primary victims of the Coalition’s proposal to raise the cap on fees and to savagely cut university funding. They are absolutely right to be angry about this and their keenness to be involved in the protest against fees and cuts is a tribute to them. We stand wholly in support of those school students who take part in the NCAFC protests on November 24th.
We urge our members in schools to do what they can to support pupils who wish to protest and to avoid, as far as possible, any instruction to prevent walkouts or to retrospectively discipline pupils who take part. We encourage NUT groups to meet and consider ways in which they can collectively support protesting pupils, protect them from any disciplinary action and send them messages of support to pupils taking part.
Gill Goodswen, National President
Nina Franklin, Senior Vice President
Patrick Murphy
Hazel Danson
Chris Blakey
Ian Leaver
Nick Wigmore
Dave Harvey
Pete Bevis
Simon Jones
Tony Tonks
(this list will be updated as more sign)
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About Ed
Excellent. Would be good to have some support from teachers in schools on the day to sign people in so that they can still get their EMA
this is fantastic, well done the NUT. would be great if the EIS in Scotland now followed it up with a similar statement.
Superb news.
Good. I’m in Year 9 and me and my friends are doing this. It’s going to affect us too.
Great.
Not only will I certainly be affected by the ridiculous tuition fees, but the UK police no longer wish to recruit due to budget cuts.
Thanks for screwing up my future, there, Mr Cameron.
I wish the management in our school took were this supportive, were being threatened with sanctions for protesting.
We have 100s of people walking out from Coombe Girls School, and not only are they going up to London to the big protest, we have all the borougs meeting in Kingston to protest there beforehand!
We have 100s of people walking out from Coombe Girls School, and not only are they going up to London to the big protest, we have all the boroughs meeting in Kingston to protest there beforehand!
This is great. Many students from acland Burghley in camden, london are walking out, including myself.
education is our right, and we are defending that right. we say no to polarization and the vicious, inescapable circle of poverty that the tory party is trapping many thousands of young people in.
and will the ‘undersigned executive of the NUT’ take responsibility for any injury or loss of life caused to young students while not in school and when their parents are assuming they are in the care of school?
Great news that the NUT supports pupils responding to this attack on cyoung people’s basic human right to an education, and to develop their talents in whatever field after schooling.
I hope that members, head teachers and school governors will support pupils in their right to protest.
I wish our school was like this. Around 500+ people planned to walk out and go to london today but we where threatened with permenant exclutions. Please contact teddington school and tell them to let us walk out on the next one. It is 30th right? Thanks
Really good to see the NUT supporting pupils in this well! I’m very impressed with the mostly good-natured and justified protest against educational cuts, well done to all! I know from experience though that governments take little notice of demonstrations, remember the Iraq war demos.
A SUGGESTION…WHY NOT SET UP A MATURE AND SERIOUS ONLINE PETITION CARRIED OUT REGION BY REGION, SCHOOL BY SCHOOL, BY WAY OF A FORM WHICH DETAILS EACH PUPIL’S NAME, SCHOOL, COURSE, HOW MUCH EMA THEY GET AND WHY THEY NEED IT,WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF IT STOPS. I RECKON HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF SUCH FORMS SENT TO GOVERNMENT COULD POSSIBLY BE VERY EFFECTIVE – MAYBE FORMS COULD BE SENT BY FACEBOOK FROM EACH SCHOOL, FOR EXAMPLE, OR E-MAIL. IDEALLY THEY SHOULD ARRIVE BY THE SACKLOAD AND BE DEPOSITED OUTSIDE 10 DOWNING STREET TO MAKE THEIR POINT.
I have a granddaughter of 16 who lives in a rural area with a single non-working (due to disability) parent and the loss to her will be severe. Her EMA covers her bus fares, books, clothes, other expenses and she will have to leave education if she loses this help. The same would apply to her younger sister in a year’s time if she stays in education. Believe me, this family are poor! THERE ISN’T A LOT OF TIME TO ORGANISE A PETITION LIKE THIS BUT IT SHOULD BE FAIRLY STRAIGHTFORWARD TO CO-ORDINATE REGION BY REGION BETWEEN HEADTEACHERS, TEACHERS, UNION REPS, PUPILS ETC. I DON’T KNOW HOW TO GO ABOUT SETTING IT UP BUT WHY NOT GET IT STARTED BY SOME STUDENTS FROM CITY OF BRISTOL COLLEGE DESIGNING THE FORM AND GETTING IT GOING. COME ON, JUST DO IT, THERE’S NOTHING TO LOSE!!!
The government knows full well what the impact of losing EMA would be. They don’t care. They know full well that they will force thousands of working-class people out of education, for a saving of about 0.5bn quid.
They have armies of civil servants figuring this stuff out – of course they know it. It might be useful to highlight the impact of the scrapping of EMA to the general public – but the basic task is to create a political crisis over the EMA issue and other cuts that forces them to back down, and that requires a lot more than a petition – it means more demonstrations, more walk-outs, a student movement that can draw in and link up with the trade unions, the labour movement, and all the other groups who are fighting against cuts.
Ok, but how utterly disgusting though! However, Ministers sitting at desks looking at figures and statistics given to them by underlings don’t necessarily understand the reality of their policies. You could also do a massive petition to run alongside the direct action – maybe one from all the parents, carers, teachers as well!! The more the merrier as far as I’m concerned. Is the whole protest too political? – kids and families are being affected across the board. I read a Guardian commentary inviting conributions from the public and the main point that emerged was that the EMA was considered by many to be unfairly allocated, with many kids not really needing it and those needing it most, getting too little – this was an important point. It was an eye-opener to discover how many people, including teachers and parents, thought the EMA scheme was being abused, enabling school kids to buy ciggies, phone top-ups and other non-essentials instead of going to the most needy.
I am totally against the iniquitous ConDem policy on tuition fees (and much else besides) but for supposed leaders of the profession – my profession – to apparently abandon their own duty of care, encouraging students as young as Year 8 to leave their classes to go on unpredictable and potentially unsafe demos, however worthy the cause, is quite simply wrong and brings the NUT into disrepute.
I am totally against the ludicrous increase in university fees. My daughter completed her degree two years ago and we paid her uni fees which came to £3600 for the full three years – she still had to work to support herself but she is now debt free. I am so proud of her as neither myself nor my husband had the chance to go to uni coming from those times when working class people never even thought themselves good enough to apply, as their parents before them. Basically if you keep it simple we just want equal opportunity for all. Education is the most important thing for the country and so fulfilling for our children. A degree is a degree no matter what the subject – you still have to put the work in to get one. It sets you up in life even if you can’t get the job you want. You will get a job! The Government can and should pay for education. They waste so much money on other things. However, today I watched the students marching in Sheffield and felt proud as they are doing this not only for the fees but so much more. I feel people are now soft and cowed and we need the students to be the backbone of the fight back to make a fairer nation.