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Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 December 2013
Solidarity with Higher education staff on strike today for fair pay
Today see's another nationwide strike in Higher education and momentum is growing with greater support and more student occupations this time too could the student movement be making a comeback in support of their lectures ?
With Exeter, Sheffield, Goldsmiths, Sussex, Ulster, Edinburgh and Birmingham all occupied in support of fair play in HE we can be Proud of students right now
Tens of thousands of university teachers and support staff are expected to walk out for a second day today in an increasingly bitter pay row.
Unions say they have “bent over backwards” to prevent the dispute from escalating, but they say employers have refused to increase a “miserly” pay offer.
Officials say the proposed 1% increase would see university workers receiving a fifth consecutive pay award below the cost of living.
They estimate the value of some staff salaries has been eroded by 14% in that time.
Today’s action will involve members from UNISON, UCU, Unite and EIS.
UNISON general secretary, Dave Prentis, said: “The decision to take action so close to Christmas shows the depth of feeling that this issue has caused.
“It is a disgrace that universities are sitting on cash surpluses worth £2bn, but they are not prepared to reward their staff who are the backbone of our world class university system.
“The employers’ imposed payment of 1% does not address the increasing cost of living for staff who face rising energy costs and increasing food bills, and does little for the 4,000 staff working in universities who earn less than the living wage.
“A fair day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay, and higher education workers deserve a better standard of living in return for their hard work and the contribution they make to the success of UK universities.”
Unions say terms and conditions amongst higher education workers are being eroded while job insecurity is increasing, with greater use of zero hour contracts and an increase in the gender pay gap.
The median salary of vice chancellors is £242,000, with the highest paid employee in higher education receiving more than £500,000.
However, workers at the bottom end of the pay scale earn just £13,486.
Unions say they have attended a series of negotiations, including at the conciliation service Acas, to try to resolve the dispute.
EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: “Strike action is always the last resort for any trade union – but it is the point at which we have reached in the pay dispute with the University Employers’ Association.
“The employers do not seem to understand the effect that four years of sub-inflationary pay rises have on their staff.
“Members literally cannot afford to go on like this, and that is why we have joined our three sister unions and colleagues in taking concerted action to pursue our claim for fair pay.
“The sector is financially healthy, with an increasing number of senior staff on salaries of over £100K a year with ever-increasing principals’ salaries – we ask the employers to fairly share the fruits of the HE sector staff hard work.”
So remember if your near a picket line or have a lecture today do not reschedule the lecture respect the picket line and give support to those out on strike if you can. This strike cannot be effective if a picket line is crossed.
Best of luck
Friday, 12 October 2012
Why socialist students is an important component of fighting austerity
I have been really encouraged by the positive reports of the socialist student’s societies being set up and refounded across the UK. As a member of the socialist party I feel we haven’t paid nearly enough attention to student politics in the past. All that is starting to change though and I’m really pleased to hear such positive moves from new comrades coming on board and long standing ones paying more attention to such work.
It’s no wonder we are finding a really strong support for our ideas on campus’s up and down the lands. I’m pretty sure we could have had a bigger student activist section of our party if we’d done the ground work in the previous decade just gone. Sadly work has been mainly focused on trade union battles, electoral challenges and the anti war movement.
Student work and youth work more generally is a key component of any revolutionary party and I am glad to see the socialist party now taking this aspect of our work far more seriously than possibly in the past. Not belittling comrade’s work but it seems to now be stepping up a gear at long last.
A concerted effort to reach out for those disenfranchised students who are facing the new £9,000 tuition fees for the first time and the rising cots of student living will create a groundswell of anger which we can match with our key demands we have as a party and societies up and down the land.
Students need a voice since the lib dems who promised not to raise tuition fees broke their promises so catastrophically students have been looking for an alternative ever since. We as socialists should be looking to bridge that gap in consciousness and to linking up struggles including linking to the workers movement including joining the October 20th TUC demonstration in London and helping students join calls for a 24 hour general strike popularised by the National Shops Stewards network who lobbied the TUC on the 9th of September in Brighton.
We are entering if we haven’t already a explosive period of class struggle which students who first showed us the way back in 2010 can play a key role in the struggle.
We have had a good reception on freshers stalls in universities across the UK.
At well-attended meetings we have discussed topics ranging from economics and theory to how we can take the lead in campaigns across campus such as Rape Is No Joke and the TUC demo on 20 October.
Recently two Spanish members volunteered to lead a discussion on the situation in Spain laying the foundations for Socialist Students to launch a solidarity campaign for young people across Europe fighting back against government austerity.
It is always key to link our struggles in this country to those around the globe Socialist students meetings where international topics have been discussed including the successful Quebec students strike of earlier this year and the huge battle of the South African miners will inspire many. Having an internationalist theme keeps our struggles linked to the wider battle to change the world to end capitalism and bring about a democratic socialist society which will benefit all not just the 1%.
Clearly we will be facing many difficult questions by new attendees on stalls and socialist student meetings which are why the party and the youth department must support socialist students and new societies in particular to feel supported and linked in to the wider movement and the party.
Most of all we must be starting to gear students and new recruits towards the 21st November NUS national day of action and mobilising as many students as we can. Contacting local Student unions and student bodies to gain support and transport is a must. Socialist students will be doing all it can to make the turnout for that day as big and as militant as possible. With socialist demands at the front of any action.
Clearly the student movements leadership is still not up to leading a serious fight back against fees and cuts to education and youth services we must also while fighting our own local campus issues link this with the need to transform the leadership of the student movement with fighting left leaders who are prepared to take the battle on and win.
Students makeup a big size of people in this country they must not be ignored their anger must be channelled in a constructive way into linking with the labour movement in removing capitalism the root of all exploitation from society once and for all.
Monday, 23 July 2012
Support the Austerity Games today, giving young people a voice to fightback !
Today takes place the austerity games in London on the doorstep of the Olympic village on Hackney Marsh's. At 2pm today the Austerity Games takes place organised by Youth Fight for jobs a organisation set up in 2009 with official union backing from multiple trade unions and with good solid links to the working class. The austerity games is a bit of fun but also with a serious point to highlight the plight of young people today in London and Britain as we see billions wasted on the corperate Olympic games.
Suzanne Beishon, London organiser, Youth Fight for Jobs and Education
A staggering £24 billion is expected to be spent on the Olympic Games, but young people face little enjoyment and no long term benefit from this costly outlay.
The inaccessible ticketing system means that most people living on the doorstep of the games will be watching the events through TV screens. Promises of jobs, homes and services from the Olympics already lie in the gutter.
An Olympic Development Authority report showed that, from 2008 until 2011, only 1,580 unemployed people got jobs on the Olympic site. Only 205 were from the Hackney Olympic borough.
Rents have soared during the run-up to the games. Landlords seeking to take advantage of the event are forcing people out of their homes if they can't afford more cash.
While council house waiting lists are through the roof, of the measly 2,818 homes that will be left from the Olympic village only 675 will be social housing with six boroughs sharing 107 of those and Newham having the leftovers.
Democratic rights during the games are under attack with exclusion zones that include putting 9pm curfews on under-16s until the start of November, giving the police the right to disperse groups of two or more, and the right to remove anti-Olympic posters and propaganda. As well as this, council tower block tenants face having missiles on their rooftops as part of the Olympic security operation.
While the rich get ready for their costly few weeks of fun, young people face a future of poverty and inequality with rising university fees, the slashing of Education Maintenance Allowance, soaring rents, slave-labour workfare schemes and sky-high unemployment. All of this is to pay for a crisis created by the banks and big business.
We are told that there is no money for jobs and education, while the bill for the Olympics continues to rise. Yet £750 billion is sitting in big business bank accounts as these fat cats see no 'profitable outlets' for investment.
We're getting organised to demand that the fantastic facilities built for the Olympics, instead of being demolished or sold to the private sector, be used to provide genuinely affordable housing and leisure facilities to benefit local communities.
Young people and trade unionists from across the country will be sending teams to Hackney Marshes to compete in the Austerity Games on 23 July, the week before the Olympics.
The games will launch the Youth Fight for Jobs and Education Manifesto, 'A Future for the 99%'. Our athletic events will highlight the plight of young people in the shadow of these expensive and corporate Olympic Games. These include the Race to the Bottom, Job Jump, Property High Jump, Deficit Discus, Hardship Hurdles and more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTERITY GAMES 2012
Monday 23 July
2pm at Hackney Marshes, Homerton Road, East London
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A future for the 99%
Manifesto of Youth Fight for Jobs and Education
£1 including postage
www.youthfightforjobs.com
youthfightforjobs@gmail.com
020 8558 7947
PO Box 858, London E11 1YG
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this issue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Socialist Party news and analysis
March and strik
Suzanne Beishon, London organiser, Youth Fight for Jobs and Education
A staggering £24 billion is expected to be spent on the Olympic Games, but young people face little enjoyment and no long term benefit from this costly outlay.
The inaccessible ticketing system means that most people living on the doorstep of the games will be watching the events through TV screens. Promises of jobs, homes and services from the Olympics already lie in the gutter.
An Olympic Development Authority report showed that, from 2008 until 2011, only 1,580 unemployed people got jobs on the Olympic site. Only 205 were from the Hackney Olympic borough.
Rents have soared during the run-up to the games. Landlords seeking to take advantage of the event are forcing people out of their homes if they can't afford more cash.
While council house waiting lists are through the roof, of the measly 2,818 homes that will be left from the Olympic village only 675 will be social housing with six boroughs sharing 107 of those and Newham having the leftovers.
Democratic rights during the games are under attack with exclusion zones that include putting 9pm curfews on under-16s until the start of November, giving the police the right to disperse groups of two or more, and the right to remove anti-Olympic posters and propaganda. As well as this, council tower block tenants face having missiles on their rooftops as part of the Olympic security operation.
While the rich get ready for their costly few weeks of fun, young people face a future of poverty and inequality with rising university fees, the slashing of Education Maintenance Allowance, soaring rents, slave-labour workfare schemes and sky-high unemployment. All of this is to pay for a crisis created by the banks and big business.
We are told that there is no money for jobs and education, while the bill for the Olympics continues to rise. Yet £750 billion is sitting in big business bank accounts as these fat cats see no 'profitable outlets' for investment.
We're getting organised to demand that the fantastic facilities built for the Olympics, instead of being demolished or sold to the private sector, be used to provide genuinely affordable housing and leisure facilities to benefit local communities.
Young people and trade unionists from across the country will be sending teams to Hackney Marshes to compete in the Austerity Games on 23 July, the week before the Olympics.
The games will launch the Youth Fight for Jobs and Education Manifesto, 'A Future for the 99%'. Our athletic events will highlight the plight of young people in the shadow of these expensive and corporate Olympic Games. These include the Race to the Bottom, Job Jump, Property High Jump, Deficit Discus, Hardship Hurdles and more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTERITY GAMES 2012
Monday 23 July
2pm at Hackney Marshes, Homerton Road, East London
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A future for the 99%
Manifesto of Youth Fight for Jobs and Education
£1 including postage
www.youthfightforjobs.com
youthfightforjobs@gmail.com
020 8558 7947
PO Box 858, London E11 1YG
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this issue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Socialist Party news and analysis
March and strik
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Keep the market out of our childrens education , say no to academies
The con-dem governemnt are using the tactic to try and make out failing schools who are under performing need to change to improve and by change they suggest turning into a academy. They are using official bodies like OFSTED to convince schools to make the change to come out of local authority funding and go it alone in the tories idea of a better education for our children.
Already education secretary Michael 'Royal Yacht' Gove has had to back down: one of the schools, Downhills School, where results have improved recently, will undergo an Ofsted inspection before any decision about a change of status.
New Labour used bribery to turn schools into academies with up to £2 million promised from a business sponsor. The coalition government are now using compulsion.
The Con-Dems argue that academies are the only way to raise standards in under-performing schools. Yet recent research publicised by the Anti Academies Alliance shows that in London, on the measure of five GCSEs including English and maths, the best performing schools are NOT academies. Nationally, 20% of academies failed to improve on their GCSE results in 2010.
As socialists we stand for free comprehensive well funded education for all with no exlusion based on any background or creed. Bringing the market into our childrens education is a disaster waiting to happen. If a academy fails or runs out of money what happens to the childrens education then ?
Haringey parents are right to call academies 'privatisation'. Already bigger academy 'chains' run more schools than some local authorities.
Oasis Community Learning, for example, runs 12 high schools all over England. Nine teachers were sacked at its Media City Academy in Salford at Christmas.
And ultimately, academies can pay staff whatever they like.
Despite business involvement, eight academies recently had to be 'bailed out' by the government for nearly £11 million.
An academy at Backwell near Bristol recently failed to enter 100 pupils for GCSE science exams. A parent commented: "I feel badly let down... now the school is an academy, who is it accountable to?"
Academy plans can be defeated. At St Leonards RC School in Durham staff voted 105 to 15 against academy status and the plan was dropped. Protesting parents stopped an academy project at Varndean School in Brighton. Teachers from Lancashire to Gloucestershire, from Coventry to London, have taken strike action against academy proposals. If the NUT and NASUWT teaching unions mobilise promptly, they can kill the plans before they get underway.
For coordinated strike action across schools threatened with academy status, backed by strong community campaigns
No to academies and free schools. Bring all schools under local authority control
We need high quality local comprehensive schools, under democratic control including students, parents and education workers
Haringey Labour MP David Lammy is opposed to compulsory academies, but not to academies themselves. None of the main parties opposes Academies. Elect trade union and community candidates to the London assembly and in town halls to defend comprehensive education.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstrate against academies!
Saturday 28 January, 12noon
Assemble at Keston Road N17
(Next to Downhills School)
March to Haringey Civic Centre
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anti-cuts campaign
Hard Times - but not for the 1
Already education secretary Michael 'Royal Yacht' Gove has had to back down: one of the schools, Downhills School, where results have improved recently, will undergo an Ofsted inspection before any decision about a change of status.
New Labour used bribery to turn schools into academies with up to £2 million promised from a business sponsor. The coalition government are now using compulsion.
The Con-Dems argue that academies are the only way to raise standards in under-performing schools. Yet recent research publicised by the Anti Academies Alliance shows that in London, on the measure of five GCSEs including English and maths, the best performing schools are NOT academies. Nationally, 20% of academies failed to improve on their GCSE results in 2010.
As socialists we stand for free comprehensive well funded education for all with no exlusion based on any background or creed. Bringing the market into our childrens education is a disaster waiting to happen. If a academy fails or runs out of money what happens to the childrens education then ?
Haringey parents are right to call academies 'privatisation'. Already bigger academy 'chains' run more schools than some local authorities.
Oasis Community Learning, for example, runs 12 high schools all over England. Nine teachers were sacked at its Media City Academy in Salford at Christmas.
And ultimately, academies can pay staff whatever they like.
Despite business involvement, eight academies recently had to be 'bailed out' by the government for nearly £11 million.
An academy at Backwell near Bristol recently failed to enter 100 pupils for GCSE science exams. A parent commented: "I feel badly let down... now the school is an academy, who is it accountable to?"
Academy plans can be defeated. At St Leonards RC School in Durham staff voted 105 to 15 against academy status and the plan was dropped. Protesting parents stopped an academy project at Varndean School in Brighton. Teachers from Lancashire to Gloucestershire, from Coventry to London, have taken strike action against academy proposals. If the NUT and NASUWT teaching unions mobilise promptly, they can kill the plans before they get underway.
For coordinated strike action across schools threatened with academy status, backed by strong community campaigns
No to academies and free schools. Bring all schools under local authority control
We need high quality local comprehensive schools, under democratic control including students, parents and education workers
Haringey Labour MP David Lammy is opposed to compulsory academies, but not to academies themselves. None of the main parties opposes Academies. Elect trade union and community candidates to the London assembly and in town halls to defend comprehensive education.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstrate against academies!
Saturday 28 January, 12noon
Assemble at Keston Road N17
(Next to Downhills School)
March to Haringey Civic Centre
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anti-cuts campaign
Hard Times - but not for the 1
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Labours plans to focus schooling more for working life, time to end this conveyer belt of workers for profit
In the papers today on sunday one of the Labour partys first new policies from its think tank of new policy ideas has formed and yes it is one i am dead against already.
Not its principle as helping people to be ready for work is important of course but the fact that this is more tinkering with the capitalist system to create a mass workforce to be making more profits for the few not the many.
Any secondary school pupils not planning to go to university would be given a clearer "route into work" under Labour party plans for a new education contract between the individual and the state.
Andy Burnham, the shadow education secretary, will this week reveal plans which would aim to give every secondary school pupil a path to employment if they met a set of required standards under a revamped curriculum more geared to the world of work.
The idea, one of the first to emerge from Labour's policy commissions, reflects its view that current thinking is geared too much to those heading to university and leaves the "forgotten half" languishing with little hope, having studied subjects that are too often ill-suited to modern working life.
Burnham's idea would involve a radical reshaping of the curriculum so that it offered a much wider choice of subjects than those included in education secretary Michael Gove's English baccalaureate. More vocational subjects would be included, such as engineering, business studies and information and communications technology.
"Latin is in and engineering is out [of the baccalaureate]. Why? It is the thinking of the 1950s," Burnham said. "I want to give a clear message of hope to every young person that says: if you work hard and get up to the required standard, you can go on to something of value."
While stressing the ideas were still in the planning stage, he made clear that a further expansion of apprenticeships in the public and private sectors would be needed if the government was to meet its obligations under the contract.
This is all well and good but just dealing with the initial thoughts, Where are these so called jobs going to come from Mr Burnham ? and who is going to fund these ideas with school budgets being cut hugely during the con-dem rule.
But this brings me to my main point that i disagree with the way capitalism works, this goes without saying but one of the worst parts of it is the fact we dont go to school to learn or to further our knowledge at all its all false that we do. In reality as this article from the Guardian confirms and Labour confirm going to school and learning is all to get you ready to work. To become that cog in a wheel of a profit making company. In other words to begin exploiting others. All my time through school i was discouraged in doing things that might help others rather to focus on myself and my own goals. This is capitalism at its very worst. I may sound cynical by saying this but i firmly believe our schools are not there to help us learn and further our knowledge in general. They do to some extent but its all geared around getting you in teh frame of mind to being a worker and as a result you will be joining the millions already oppressed out there who face a tough life working all hours under the sun just to get by. What a existence really you may say. Sadly this is the grim reality of what the tories and new labour want from us out of our school life.
All the time i was at school i was constantly asked what do you wan to do when you leave school. I still dont know to this day, does this make me less normal ? no not at all many dont know what they want to do when they leave school. But i do work now and its good but i dont enjoy it, i work because i need to not because i want to or enjoy it.
Under socialism learning and school life would not be limited to say the age of 18 then you go and get a job. The cut down in the working hours a week to a initial limit of 35 hours per week decreasing as quickly as we can to even less will provide millions of jobs and mean we have plenty of time to socialise, learn, take part in a trade union and get involved in community schemes and building society for the better.
This is the kind of world i'd rather live in, not the one where the next pay cheque means everything and what grades you get in school determines where we end up in life. I wanta fair society for all not just the few. This can only be achieved i believe through full democratic socialism where the economy is run in the interests of the many not just the few.
Not its principle as helping people to be ready for work is important of course but the fact that this is more tinkering with the capitalist system to create a mass workforce to be making more profits for the few not the many.
Any secondary school pupils not planning to go to university would be given a clearer "route into work" under Labour party plans for a new education contract between the individual and the state.
Andy Burnham, the shadow education secretary, will this week reveal plans which would aim to give every secondary school pupil a path to employment if they met a set of required standards under a revamped curriculum more geared to the world of work.
The idea, one of the first to emerge from Labour's policy commissions, reflects its view that current thinking is geared too much to those heading to university and leaves the "forgotten half" languishing with little hope, having studied subjects that are too often ill-suited to modern working life.
Burnham's idea would involve a radical reshaping of the curriculum so that it offered a much wider choice of subjects than those included in education secretary Michael Gove's English baccalaureate. More vocational subjects would be included, such as engineering, business studies and information and communications technology.
"Latin is in and engineering is out [of the baccalaureate]. Why? It is the thinking of the 1950s," Burnham said. "I want to give a clear message of hope to every young person that says: if you work hard and get up to the required standard, you can go on to something of value."
While stressing the ideas were still in the planning stage, he made clear that a further expansion of apprenticeships in the public and private sectors would be needed if the government was to meet its obligations under the contract.
This is all well and good but just dealing with the initial thoughts, Where are these so called jobs going to come from Mr Burnham ? and who is going to fund these ideas with school budgets being cut hugely during the con-dem rule.
But this brings me to my main point that i disagree with the way capitalism works, this goes without saying but one of the worst parts of it is the fact we dont go to school to learn or to further our knowledge at all its all false that we do. In reality as this article from the Guardian confirms and Labour confirm going to school and learning is all to get you ready to work. To become that cog in a wheel of a profit making company. In other words to begin exploiting others. All my time through school i was discouraged in doing things that might help others rather to focus on myself and my own goals. This is capitalism at its very worst. I may sound cynical by saying this but i firmly believe our schools are not there to help us learn and further our knowledge in general. They do to some extent but its all geared around getting you in teh frame of mind to being a worker and as a result you will be joining the millions already oppressed out there who face a tough life working all hours under the sun just to get by. What a existence really you may say. Sadly this is the grim reality of what the tories and new labour want from us out of our school life.
All the time i was at school i was constantly asked what do you wan to do when you leave school. I still dont know to this day, does this make me less normal ? no not at all many dont know what they want to do when they leave school. But i do work now and its good but i dont enjoy it, i work because i need to not because i want to or enjoy it.
Under socialism learning and school life would not be limited to say the age of 18 then you go and get a job. The cut down in the working hours a week to a initial limit of 35 hours per week decreasing as quickly as we can to even less will provide millions of jobs and mean we have plenty of time to socialise, learn, take part in a trade union and get involved in community schemes and building society for the better.
This is the kind of world i'd rather live in, not the one where the next pay cheque means everything and what grades you get in school determines where we end up in life. I wanta fair society for all not just the few. This can only be achieved i believe through full democratic socialism where the economy is run in the interests of the many not just the few.
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Education for the mass's not just the ruling class's
We are always learning from the day we are born till the day we die. Life is all about learning and learning well.
SO when the coalition government decided to treble student university tuitian fees thinking that the universities charging 9 thousand pounds would be the exception not the rule we all thought here we go again.
Today we find ourselves in the situation of nearly every university in the Uk charging 9 grand a year for its courses. This is due to the fact they have to charge the top rate to cover the gap in funding that has been cut from the higher education budget.
For myself who has spent a lot of time in education and still involved to a extent whilst i'm doing my open university course in social sciences i can appreciate how important a education is to people.
I could really understand the students anger last year on the demo's planned by the NUS who's handling of it all was pretty slow and sluggish in my view. But they had huge demo's with students putting the lib dems who they thought represented them sold out their pledges to vote for raising of tuitian fees.
No wonder so many students feel let down by this political class. The people like Nick Clegg and Vince cable and Simon Hughes should be ashamed of their actions. Worse is Simon hughes who obstained and couldnt even vote agianst the bill how spineless. It still must be very raw in the youth of todays minds and many students minds too.
I personall feel all education should be free for all. The price that a country spends on investing in its youth and students it will reap in the long run. Take Cuba for example where education is totally free there is a lot of very intelligent people who come out of Cuba and are very talented.
I do feel if the balance of the economy was adressed and wealth was redistributed fairly under a socialist society that education would be able to be free and peoples education would be deamed a very important asset to a country and its people. After all your skilled workforce is only as good as they are due to the education they have recieved i believe.
Another thing which i feel is totally unfair is private schools in this country. The likes of Eton where alot of the current tory party have progressed through is full of filthy rich kids and they are so isolated from the rest of society no wonder they grow up not understanding the way the rest of us live. So i do hope and think that if we ever do change our society and the economic power is shifted and distributed a lot more fairly then private schools will be abolished and made a thing of the past.
Private schools encourage elitism and are bad for society as they produce a them and us feeling which is not a fair way of thinking.
The fact that many private school are able to register themselves as charities and recieve charitable funding is just plain wrong in my opinion. The reason why so many who go to private school go on to do so well is that they are already half way there. Attending a school like Eton is that leg up that working class kids do not get. Working class students can still make it to the top dont get me wrong but we are seeing a far narrower market now which is increasingly being filled with privately educated people from a rich affluant background.
This is not a tory own issue most of the labour front bench in the House of Commons have been privately educated so a party taht was always rooted in the working class have been infiltrated by a political elite from a middle to upper class background.
As the title of this blogpost suggests i want to see education for the mass's not just the ruling class's. I want to see a good comprehensive schooling system where there is opputunities for working class kids to succeed. I think this can happen by abolishing private schools and making things a fair level playing field for all .
As at the end of the day i feel we have to be moving towards educating people to better society nnot like today where the sole purpose of education is to prepare you for work which is fair enough but it is to bring them through to make more money and become a part of the capitalist system sadly. I think in older life more people learn for their own enjoyment and to further their knowledge but when your younger it is all about working hard to get better grades to earn more and more money. It is still a money drive education system which under a socialist society would work in the opposite direction. Where you would learn for yourself but also to better society and for others too.
Nick Clegg last week was doing a speech on social mobility but untill the balance of power and wealth isnt just concentrated just with a select few at the top social mobility will continue to be a struggle for working class children. It is quite hypocritical of Clegg though to be lecturing us on social mobility when it was his party who campaigned against the rise in tuitian fees yet when in government with the tories went against all that and also cvoting to scrap the vital EMA grant which helped many working class students obtain expensive books and school equiptment aswell as ensuring they could afford to get to and from school. So how he feels that he is now in the position to lecture us on social mobility i will never know.
SO when the coalition government decided to treble student university tuitian fees thinking that the universities charging 9 thousand pounds would be the exception not the rule we all thought here we go again.
Today we find ourselves in the situation of nearly every university in the Uk charging 9 grand a year for its courses. This is due to the fact they have to charge the top rate to cover the gap in funding that has been cut from the higher education budget.
For myself who has spent a lot of time in education and still involved to a extent whilst i'm doing my open university course in social sciences i can appreciate how important a education is to people.
I could really understand the students anger last year on the demo's planned by the NUS who's handling of it all was pretty slow and sluggish in my view. But they had huge demo's with students putting the lib dems who they thought represented them sold out their pledges to vote for raising of tuitian fees.
No wonder so many students feel let down by this political class. The people like Nick Clegg and Vince cable and Simon Hughes should be ashamed of their actions. Worse is Simon hughes who obstained and couldnt even vote agianst the bill how spineless. It still must be very raw in the youth of todays minds and many students minds too.
I personall feel all education should be free for all. The price that a country spends on investing in its youth and students it will reap in the long run. Take Cuba for example where education is totally free there is a lot of very intelligent people who come out of Cuba and are very talented.
I do feel if the balance of the economy was adressed and wealth was redistributed fairly under a socialist society that education would be able to be free and peoples education would be deamed a very important asset to a country and its people. After all your skilled workforce is only as good as they are due to the education they have recieved i believe.
Another thing which i feel is totally unfair is private schools in this country. The likes of Eton where alot of the current tory party have progressed through is full of filthy rich kids and they are so isolated from the rest of society no wonder they grow up not understanding the way the rest of us live. So i do hope and think that if we ever do change our society and the economic power is shifted and distributed a lot more fairly then private schools will be abolished and made a thing of the past.
Private schools encourage elitism and are bad for society as they produce a them and us feeling which is not a fair way of thinking.
The fact that many private school are able to register themselves as charities and recieve charitable funding is just plain wrong in my opinion. The reason why so many who go to private school go on to do so well is that they are already half way there. Attending a school like Eton is that leg up that working class kids do not get. Working class students can still make it to the top dont get me wrong but we are seeing a far narrower market now which is increasingly being filled with privately educated people from a rich affluant background.
This is not a tory own issue most of the labour front bench in the House of Commons have been privately educated so a party taht was always rooted in the working class have been infiltrated by a political elite from a middle to upper class background.
As the title of this blogpost suggests i want to see education for the mass's not just the ruling class's. I want to see a good comprehensive schooling system where there is opputunities for working class kids to succeed. I think this can happen by abolishing private schools and making things a fair level playing field for all .
As at the end of the day i feel we have to be moving towards educating people to better society nnot like today where the sole purpose of education is to prepare you for work which is fair enough but it is to bring them through to make more money and become a part of the capitalist system sadly. I think in older life more people learn for their own enjoyment and to further their knowledge but when your younger it is all about working hard to get better grades to earn more and more money. It is still a money drive education system which under a socialist society would work in the opposite direction. Where you would learn for yourself but also to better society and for others too.
Nick Clegg last week was doing a speech on social mobility but untill the balance of power and wealth isnt just concentrated just with a select few at the top social mobility will continue to be a struggle for working class children. It is quite hypocritical of Clegg though to be lecturing us on social mobility when it was his party who campaigned against the rise in tuitian fees yet when in government with the tories went against all that and also cvoting to scrap the vital EMA grant which helped many working class students obtain expensive books and school equiptment aswell as ensuring they could afford to get to and from school. So how he feels that he is now in the position to lecture us on social mobility i will never know.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Another shameful attack on the young with Gov axing EMA
So tonight MP's in the houses of commons voted by a majority of 59 votes for the scrapping of the Educational maintanance allowance.
A report here from the bbc outlines details
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12228466
I'm saddend to hear of this latest cut. This will affect many young students who wouldh ave stayed on to study at college or at sixth form at their schools. The grant which was brought in by the last labour government encouraged students from less well off backgrounds to stay on in education beyond the age of 16. The grant which was open to any of those students who's families earned less than 30 thousand pounds a year was widely regarded as a success with lots more students staying on to further their education.
Now with the governemnt breaking yet another of its pre electin pledges it remains to see what will happen to millions of students and young people in this country who will be forced to leave school now to find employment as staying on is simply not fainancially viable.
I tonight sit and think of those poor students from working class backgrounds who's hopes now will have been dashed. With last months decision to treble university tuitian fees it is becoming increasingly clearer to me that this government do not want young working class people to make anything with their lives. Unless you can afford to stay on in education and can afford your university fees it is either the doll or low paid work for you.
Where is the aspiration in this country anymore to help and support our youngsters of tommorrow. The future of our country. With rocketing unemployment up today up to 2.5 million i can only see that tipping 3 million by the end of 2011. With the addition of thousands of youth with no futures with little job prospects to look forward to.
Another bad decision from this awful right wing government of ours. Really depressing times.
A report here from the bbc outlines details
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12228466
I'm saddend to hear of this latest cut. This will affect many young students who wouldh ave stayed on to study at college or at sixth form at their schools. The grant which was brought in by the last labour government encouraged students from less well off backgrounds to stay on in education beyond the age of 16. The grant which was open to any of those students who's families earned less than 30 thousand pounds a year was widely regarded as a success with lots more students staying on to further their education.
Now with the governemnt breaking yet another of its pre electin pledges it remains to see what will happen to millions of students and young people in this country who will be forced to leave school now to find employment as staying on is simply not fainancially viable.
I tonight sit and think of those poor students from working class backgrounds who's hopes now will have been dashed. With last months decision to treble university tuitian fees it is becoming increasingly clearer to me that this government do not want young working class people to make anything with their lives. Unless you can afford to stay on in education and can afford your university fees it is either the doll or low paid work for you.
Where is the aspiration in this country anymore to help and support our youngsters of tommorrow. The future of our country. With rocketing unemployment up today up to 2.5 million i can only see that tipping 3 million by the end of 2011. With the addition of thousands of youth with no futures with little job prospects to look forward to.
Another bad decision from this awful right wing government of ours. Really depressing times.
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Response from my MP on tuitian fees
Hi there this is a email i just recieved from my local MP who appears to be backing the tuitian fees rise. If people are interested these are his views below.
07 December 2010
Dear Mr Wright
Thank you for contacting me about Higher Education Funding.
The previous Government established a review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance which was chaired by Lord Browne. This Review proposed no limit on the fees for students. After careful consideration the Coalition Government has decided to cap the fees at a lower threshold of £6,000 with an upper threshold of £9,000. Universities will be able to set their own fees however, those Universities seeking to charge more than £6,000 will have to increase their efforts to attract students from lower-income families. To support those on lower incomes a £150 million National Scholarship Programme has been announced to which upper threshold universities will be expected to contribute funds.
In addition, graduates will not be required to repay any money until they have reached an income of £21,000, £6,000 higher than the previous threshold. This means that many lower-income students will be better off under the new arrangements which the National Union of Students and others fully accept. Only those students earning above £41,000 will repay at the full rate so again, this is a better offer than has been made before. Further to this, it will be the case that part-time students would have equal access to Student Loans just as fulltime students have which again represents a better deal than currently exists.
I raise the points above because they have often not been made clear to people when looking at the national headlines. These changes mean that the system will be far more progressive in helping those on lower incomes, than has been the case to date.
Having been a student myself I remember all too well the system that used to exist where those who overran their grants or did not receive sufficient support from their parents would run up overdrafts, often at fifteen or twenty percent in interest. Whilst the system then had some merit, it did not require many students to actually contribute to their education from which they would inevitably enjoy a substantially higher income.
This is a very difficult decision to take. As a new Government we have inherited a substantial deficit and it means that everybody is having to contribute more to balance the books. I personally believe that under graduates should contribute towards the cost of their education, not least because it will often lead to substantially higher incomes than would otherwise be the case. Further to this, I do not believe it is fair that those older people who have not had the benefit of a university education should subsidise younger people who will.
Cont’d/……
07 December 2010
I also believe that it is time we struck a better balance between a university education and vocational skills. The last Government actively encouraged young people to believe that only a university education would suffice. This has been enormously detrimental both to many young people for whom university simply isn’t right and the economy in starving us of people with the appropriate technical and vocational skills needed. So, whilst I appreciate the points that have been raised by a number of people I shall be supporting the Government’s proposals with regards to Higher Education and Tuition Fees.
Yours sincerely
Mark Prisk MP
(dictated by Mark Prisk and sent on his behalf)
07 December 2010
Dear Mr Wright
Thank you for contacting me about Higher Education Funding.
The previous Government established a review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance which was chaired by Lord Browne. This Review proposed no limit on the fees for students. After careful consideration the Coalition Government has decided to cap the fees at a lower threshold of £6,000 with an upper threshold of £9,000. Universities will be able to set their own fees however, those Universities seeking to charge more than £6,000 will have to increase their efforts to attract students from lower-income families. To support those on lower incomes a £150 million National Scholarship Programme has been announced to which upper threshold universities will be expected to contribute funds.
In addition, graduates will not be required to repay any money until they have reached an income of £21,000, £6,000 higher than the previous threshold. This means that many lower-income students will be better off under the new arrangements which the National Union of Students and others fully accept. Only those students earning above £41,000 will repay at the full rate so again, this is a better offer than has been made before. Further to this, it will be the case that part-time students would have equal access to Student Loans just as fulltime students have which again represents a better deal than currently exists.
I raise the points above because they have often not been made clear to people when looking at the national headlines. These changes mean that the system will be far more progressive in helping those on lower incomes, than has been the case to date.
Having been a student myself I remember all too well the system that used to exist where those who overran their grants or did not receive sufficient support from their parents would run up overdrafts, often at fifteen or twenty percent in interest. Whilst the system then had some merit, it did not require many students to actually contribute to their education from which they would inevitably enjoy a substantially higher income.
This is a very difficult decision to take. As a new Government we have inherited a substantial deficit and it means that everybody is having to contribute more to balance the books. I personally believe that under graduates should contribute towards the cost of their education, not least because it will often lead to substantially higher incomes than would otherwise be the case. Further to this, I do not believe it is fair that those older people who have not had the benefit of a university education should subsidise younger people who will.
Cont’d/……
07 December 2010
I also believe that it is time we struck a better balance between a university education and vocational skills. The last Government actively encouraged young people to believe that only a university education would suffice. This has been enormously detrimental both to many young people for whom university simply isn’t right and the economy in starving us of people with the appropriate technical and vocational skills needed. So, whilst I appreciate the points that have been raised by a number of people I shall be supporting the Government’s proposals with regards to Higher Education and Tuition Fees.
Yours sincerely
Mark Prisk MP
(dictated by Mark Prisk and sent on his behalf)
Why we must fight to protect the open university
Well today we hear a whopping 89 million pounds will be cut from the Open university budget from next year by the government.
http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/Hertfordshire/Number-of-speed-cameras-in-Herts-could-be-cut-after-Government-funding-reduction.htm?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
This is another blow to part time students who people like Lenny Henry who have gained excellent English degrees out of the institutain.
I feel disapointed by this decision as i myself was planning to start a social sciences course with the OU in January. I do still hope i can fullfill this. It is a disgrace that this funding is being cut. It just shows that the tories and it is the tories doing this, a ideaology i say are slowly picking away at any opputunities the less well off have in life in this country. By removing such a huge chunck from the cudget will have a major impact on a organisation that were struggling in the first place. This will mean many even thousands of students per year will miss out on a top education be it part time or full time with the Open uni.
The open university which was originally set up by Labour to help part time students gain degrees and further their education has been an excellent organisation for years and years. This seriously puts the organisation in danger i fear. The interesting question will be is will foreign students who take courses with them from abroad will have to increase to make up teh short fall. Interesting times lay ahead and this is another wreckless decision the government is making that will have a direct impact on me. I would never vote tory and these decisions in the last few days have confirmed this. They are killing off aspiration in this country and it will be hard to ever retrieve.
So i will join any cause to help protect the open university and lobby the government to get this over turned in any way we can. On top of the university tuitian fees decision i hope this story does not go under the carpet as it is very important. Alot of intelligent people pass through the open university year in year out and end up contributing massively to the country and its economy. DO the condems realise waht they are doing when they cut so savagely into these organisations budgets.
somehow i dont think they do....
http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/Hertfordshire/Number-of-speed-cameras-in-Herts-could-be-cut-after-Government-funding-reduction.htm?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
This is another blow to part time students who people like Lenny Henry who have gained excellent English degrees out of the institutain.
I feel disapointed by this decision as i myself was planning to start a social sciences course with the OU in January. I do still hope i can fullfill this. It is a disgrace that this funding is being cut. It just shows that the tories and it is the tories doing this, a ideaology i say are slowly picking away at any opputunities the less well off have in life in this country. By removing such a huge chunck from the cudget will have a major impact on a organisation that were struggling in the first place. This will mean many even thousands of students per year will miss out on a top education be it part time or full time with the Open uni.
The open university which was originally set up by Labour to help part time students gain degrees and further their education has been an excellent organisation for years and years. This seriously puts the organisation in danger i fear. The interesting question will be is will foreign students who take courses with them from abroad will have to increase to make up teh short fall. Interesting times lay ahead and this is another wreckless decision the government is making that will have a direct impact on me. I would never vote tory and these decisions in the last few days have confirmed this. They are killing off aspiration in this country and it will be hard to ever retrieve.
So i will join any cause to help protect the open university and lobby the government to get this over turned in any way we can. On top of the university tuitian fees decision i hope this story does not go under the carpet as it is very important. Alot of intelligent people pass through the open university year in year out and end up contributing massively to the country and its economy. DO the condems realise waht they are doing when they cut so savagely into these organisations budgets.
somehow i dont think they do....
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Ed balls on specialist education
Hi all and welcome to another blog entry from myself. i emailed Ed balls personally a month or so ago about specialist education. A subject that is dear to my heart as they helped me out a hell of a lot when i lost my sight and needed support. This is the email i recieved just now from Ed's team and why i think he would be such a great advocator of specialist education.
Hi Mark and thanks very much for contacting Ed Balls. I am really sorry for this awfully slow reply, but the truth is we've been inundated with communications of all kinds and we've simply found it impossible to keep on top of them all. As a result we've got a big backlog, so there's nothing personal in us replying so slowly to you!
As you probably know, Ed was extremely interested in issues to do with disabled children and young people when he was Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, and he took a keen issue in SEN. I understand that his view is that there is a place for special schools within the education system, within a broader policy to support inclusion. He has met too many young disabled children and young people, and parents, to think there is a single ideological answer to how best to meet their educational needs, and is a strong supporter of there being enough diversity in the system so that children and parents who want to choose a special school, are able to do so.
I hope this answers your question Mark.
Thanks again for contacting Ed and sorry again we've been so slow replying.
All the best,
Caroline Abrahams
Hi Mark and thanks very much for contacting Ed Balls. I am really sorry for this awfully slow reply, but the truth is we've been inundated with communications of all kinds and we've simply found it impossible to keep on top of them all. As a result we've got a big backlog, so there's nothing personal in us replying so slowly to you!
As you probably know, Ed was extremely interested in issues to do with disabled children and young people when he was Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, and he took a keen issue in SEN. I understand that his view is that there is a place for special schools within the education system, within a broader policy to support inclusion. He has met too many young disabled children and young people, and parents, to think there is a single ideological answer to how best to meet their educational needs, and is a strong supporter of there being enough diversity in the system so that children and parents who want to choose a special school, are able to do so.
I hope this answers your question Mark.
Thanks again for contacting Ed and sorry again we've been so slow replying.
All the best,
Caroline Abrahams
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