Hackney teachers strike over ‘attack’ on sixth-form colleges
BSix teachers on the picket line. Photograph: Hackney NUT
Teachers at a Hackney sixth-form college took strike action on Tuesday over cuts to further education.
Lessons were cancelled at BSix College, Clapton, after the government’s last-ditch attempt to stop the strike failed at the High Court.
Teachers took to the streets as part of national strike action over a 14 per cent cut in funding for sixth-form colleges during the last four years.
A rally took place in central London, where teachers delivered a letter of protest to the Department for Education (DfE).
Jamie Duff, President of the Hackney branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), called the government’s attempt to stop the strike through the courts “desperate”.
“This sorry attempt to bully teachers prepared to stand up for education has failed,” said Mr Duff.
“The working conditions of a teacher is the learning environment of a student – teachers will not stand by and let this government continue its unnecessary attacks on sixth-form colleges.”
The NUT has called on the government to restore funding to further education to the levels that existed before the coalition came to power in 2010.
The union is also opposed to a government review of further education, announced in January, which the NUT said “threatens the very existence” of sixth-form colleges.
Lauren Pemberton-Nelson, a student at BSix, was in support of the strike, saying sixth-form colleges are vital for students.
“The cutting of funding is ridiculous and the fact they do not ask our opinion shows that they really do not care,” she said.
Another student, Dylan Chung, added: “The future of this country could be a bright one if the government invested in the education of the younger generation.”
The walk-out went ahead despite the DfE claiming the strike was not a trade dispute as defined by law.
After the High Court threw out the challenge to the strike, a spokesperson for the DfE said: “The NUT is seeking to disrupt the education of thousands of students and damage the reputation of the profession.”
I notice the quote in your report
“The NUT is seeking to disrupt the EDUCATION of thousands of students and damage the reputation of the profession.”
Do the Department bureaucrats really believe that the NUT would be doing that as their motive?
How long must Society – what is left of it after the Cons have done their attacking – wait before
basic common sense is established in the behaviour of “Government”?
As far as I can see in the mainstream NEWS outlets, all the numerically major domestic disputes between paid professional workers and the Cameron-Osborne regime have been caused by the
Government behaving irrationally and against the evidence.
There is nothing in your current report (I am commenting on here) that mentions anything about what redress, if any, might be available within the framework of due process and constitutionality to hold the likes of Cameron and Osborne to account.
Yet they – Cameron and Osborne – are the toxic influences behind the plastic words you have quoted from the DfE.
It was the case throughout the Con-Dem years (May 2010 to May 2015) – and remains the case this week – that despite undeniable objective evidence that the Cons are bent on
targeting the most productive people in Society or ‘the Economy’ and yet there appears to be no sign of a significant opposition to hat kind of waste of resources and the
denial of rights to millions of peoples’ lives that the Cons keep causing.
One week it is the under attack Health sector
Next it is other sectors
and the list goes on with no real Opposition appearing against them that they will take notice of.
Except “back bench Tory MPs”.
When back bench MPs “speak” or are mentioned at all, Cons take notice.
That is now how “government” should be.
Except “back bench Tory MPs”.
When back bench MPs “speak” or are mentioned at all, Cons take notice.
That is NOT how “government” should be.
The DfE said: “The NUT is seeking to disrupt the education of thousands of students and damage the reputation of the profession.” They’re the ones damaging the profession by underfunding it causing another crisis, as if the housing, unemployment, NHS and environmental crises aren’t enough. They’re damaging their own reputation at that of the whole education system that was once the envy of the world.