Owen Jones has said that government cuts to sixth-form colleges amount to “vandalism”, and described the sector as “under attack”.
The comments from Mr Jones (pictured) come as thousands of college teachers across the country took part in the NUT teaching union’s national strike. A last-ditch legal challenge by the Department for Education yesterday was thrown out in the High Court.
‘Under attack’
Today the author and commentator addressed hundreds of union members attending the NUT rally at King’s Cross in London. “Thank you for standing up for our education system, thank you for standing up for the children and young people who are the future of this country and thank you for standing up for all of those who’ve been made to pay for a crisis that they had absolutely nothing to do with,” Mr Jones said. “You give us hope, you give us leadership.
“You show us how it’s done. And I want to say thank you because, like so many, I owe absolutely everything to my teachers. I’m a proud product of comprehensive education - a system that this government is waging war with…My [former] sixth form, like so many others, is being battered by this government…It was, and is, a real hub of the community. So it is devastating, devastating, to hear that the sixth form that I owe so much to is under attack. This is vandalism. It’s vandalism of the futures of our children and young people that this country depends on.”
Mr Jones also said that budget of a typical sixth-form college had shrunk to the level of a “modest high school”. He continued: “And now, because of these cuts, [further education] is unable to do many of the things I took for granted when I was at sixth form back then. The courses are being cut back…and adult education learning is hanging from a thread.”
.@OwenJones84: ‘Thank you for standing up for our education system’ #saveourcolleges pic.twitter.com/oNDYEAgqkb
- TES Further Ed (@tesfenews) March 15, 2016
Defending education
Responding to the government’s legal challenge to halt the strike, Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, said: “[The government] wanted to prove that our strike was about defending education…The truth is you cannot defend education without defending our conditions of service, and we can’t defend young people’s learning conditions without defending our terms and conditions.
“If class sizes go up, then that’s more stressful and more work for the teacher, [and] it’s worse for the child. If an arts course is closed and a teacher is made redundant, that’s terrible for that teacher, but it also means that children are deprived of those courses. So, we proudly say: our strike is about defending education. And it’s about defending teachers working conditions. The two are inseparable.”
A DfE spokesman said: “The NUT is seeking to disrupt the education of thousands of students and damage the reputation of the profession. We are disappointed with the court’s decision and are considering our options. We recognise the importance of investing in education, which is why, thanks to the difficult decisions we have taken elsewhere, we have been able to protect core 16-19 funding. At the same time we have ended the unfair difference between post-16 schools and colleges by funding them per student to ensure that all young people leave education with the skills they need to thrive in modern Britain.”
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