Education unions resist (so far) government attempts to snuff out pensions dispute
There has been much anger already voiced about what appears to be an impending sell-out by Brendan Barber and Dave Prentis, acting in cahoots with the Con-Dem coalition. Opposition amongst rank-and-file trade unionists includes various petitions (including here and here) and a lobby of the TUC ahead of its discussions with the government.
With the announcement by the government that it has reached a ‘heads of agreement’ deal with many of the trade unions, it is gratifying to see that (for now at least) the education trade unions are showing a united front in refusing the sign up to the deal.
Commenting on the latest round of Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) talks, UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “Following extensive talks with government officials UCU, together with the NUT, UCAC, and NASUWT, has decided to reserve its position on the proposed agreement. We have requested further documentation and clarification on a number of aspects of the proposals. Once we are in receipt of full information on the offer and how it will affect our diverse membership our national executive committee will consider the proposals. Following this, UCU is then committed to balloting our members in the TPS scheme on whether to accept or reject any final offer. “
Highlighting how the government clearly sought to bounce unions into agreeing to its proposal, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said, ‘the DfE has been unable to provide key documentation requested by negotiators and which is central to securing a proper resolution. The Coalition Government has still not provided any information on the need for reform to the TPS and today’s statement confirms that teachers will be expected to pay more, receive less and work longer for their pensions. All of the available evidence confirms that the TPS is fair, affordable and sustainable. We were also concerned that the DfE refused to table its first offer until Thursday 15 December. Within hours, the coalition government withdrew the offer and a further proposal did not emerge until late on Monday 19 December. Teachers would expect their negotiators to insist on a detailed examination of the implications of the DfE’s proposals and to exercise due diligence. In the timescale imposed by the government, this simply was not possible.’
Commenting on the latest round of Teachers’ Pension Scheme talks, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said, “Following lengthy discussions today the NUT was not able to sign up to the Government’s headline proposals. There was insufficient progress in terms of the Government’s position that teachers should work longer, pay more and get less. In the NUT we reserved our position due to lack of progress but also the lack of documentation in certain critical areas.’
Of course it’s good to see the education unions working together for once. A coordinated response from across the education sector will always be the most powerful one – provided of course that the union bureaucrats can be prevented from coordinating a sell-out of their members’ interests…
November 30 industrial action
On November 30 up to 3 million public sector workers went on strike - in defence of their pensions, which are coming under attack from a government intent on enforcing spending cuts despite no evidence whatsoever that these cuts are having the apparently intended effect of reducing government debt – but also as a wider mobilisation of trade unionists who are increasingly angry about the government agenda and the attempt to impose the economic costs of a global recession, caused by corporate greed, onto workers who have no responsibility for causing the crisis.
Most of the education unions were on strike – NUT, NASUWT, NAHT, UCU, and many members of Unison and Unite who work in schools and other education institutions. Most IWW Education Workers are also trade union activists within one of these unions, and many were actively involved in organising industrial action that took place on November 30.
Sheffield:
IWW/UCU members picketing from 8.15
Wobblies joining students and other local activists for a tour of pickets throughout the city centre starting at 7.15 at Sheffield Hallam University
IWW block on Devonshire Green feeder march from 11am
Students staged an occupation in the University of Sheffield Arts Tower building, with IWW Education Workers supporting
Ruskin College
UCU supporting picket at Oxford Uni 8.30am, then touring picket lines in city. Having a presence outside of Ruskin to build for the demo at 1.30.
3 feeder marches to main demo, congregating at 2pm, marching to city centre, then rally with speakers
Glasgow IWW were up and about! Unison – not balloted and not officially striking at the University (different pension scheme – talk about ‘divide and rule’!), but dual-card IWWs will be supporting the UCU. Feeder march with students and UCU planned to meet up with the rest in town.
Falkirk
A rally in Falkirk was chaired by an IWW Education Worker for the Trades Council. The turnout was 4 times that expected (nearly 300 people) requiring the meeting to overspill into a larger room. Lots of prison officers, physiotherapists and teachers (EIS). Mood was pretty militant.
Nottingham
In Nottingham, IWW members, at least 6 from the branch, went on the main city march after picket lines had finished (around 10am). We are in disparate mainstream unions, two of us in UCU. The picket lines that IWW Education Workers were on were at University of Nottingham and South Notts College. The march had at least 10000 people on it (one of our fellow workers was doing a proper count) – this is the largest demo in Nottingham in my memory. The UCU picket lines were supported by Notts Uncut who brought sandwiches for the strikers all the way out to the University of Nottingham campus at the several entrances. These supporters included students and people active in Notts Save Our Services. People who are involved in the the ongoing Nottingham Occupation also supported city centre picket lines – mainly PCS ones. There was a good anarchist contingent on the march with red and black flags and the Nottingham AF banner. People generally dispersed after the march as the rally point was a bit out of the way (organised by East Midlands TUC at a hall which had limited ticketed entry for trade union members) and there was not a lot of room to meet outside. Quite a bit of the disperal was to local pubs.
West Midlands
Swanshurst School had about 20 out on the picket from 4 unions-NASUWT,
UNISON, NUT and GMB. We picketed both front and back gates from 7.30 to
9.45. Chris Keates (NASUWT National Sec) showed up. ITV had a small
piece on it nationally and the Birmingham Mail also produced this for
the website:
Photos form the picket can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasuwt_union/sets/72157628217572189/show/
The main TUC march in town was well attended (TUC said 15,000 but ITV
said 30,000). About 20+ West Mids IWW members/supporters were out and we had
the guillotine with Cameron and Clegg with us for the duration. This
went down well with all the marchers and it must be said our
megaphone/chanting was the business. Outside the rally we held our mock
execution to the applause of the ground:
At the University of Birmingham, there was a noticeable presence on all the picket lines, and much lower student presence within the campus than usual. IWW Education Workers – based in UCU, Unison and the NUS – were present on the picket lines as either supporters or strikers.
Unfortunately the University security team, overseen by the Head of Security and accompanied by the Director of HR, Director of External Relations and Director of Hospitality, sought to obstruct picketing on the East Gate. Despite attempts by UCU officials to inform the University managment of their legal right to discuss the industrial action with those entering the University, the security staff sought to hold back picketers from incoming traffic, waving incoming traffic through the barriers. This caused many vehicles to accelerate as they entered the group of picketers, creating what we viewed to be a serious risk for picketers. Fortunately this policy was dropped after a prolonged discussion with the Head of Security over our legal right to picket.
This aside, the presence of such senior management at the picket lines is a clear sign that the industrial action on Wednesday rattled the University managers.
The branch also hosted a teach-out which was very successful, with around 10 speakers covering topics such as the comparisons between Soviet rule and British Universities, the insecurities that explain the dwindling right to protest, medieval uprisings, and the shallowness of the University’s ‘student experience’ concept, and with around 100 people in the audience.
At the University of Wolverhampton, IWW Education Workers took part in UCU industrial action. Strikers received visits from their Vice-Chancellor, two Deputy Vice-Chancellors, and senior executives at the City and Walsall campuses – who graciously offered hot beverages and wished them well. The strike was noticeably solid, with very few academics and support staff crossing the picket lines, and the subsequent rally and short march through Wolverhampton was large, loud and determined, with all the public sector unions and some of their students joining them.
Academies increase the pay divide
In case anyone was left wondering what the incentive was for supposed ‘charities’ seeking to take over and run our schools, the answer appears to be becoming increasingly clear. The government’s Academies scheme, which allows state-funded schools to opt out of local government control, and then sell themselves to a private sponsor that then gets automatic control of the school’s governing body, has been in the headlines recently for the high pay of those running the ‘charities’ that take over the schools. At the same time, academies are sacking teachers, presumably to help pay for the inflated salaries at the top.
As the Guardian reports, ‘Charities that run chains of academy schools are using public funds to pay senior staff six-figure salaries, with some on £240,000 or more.’ This includes an annual reward package of £280,ooo for Bruce Liddington, director general of E-Act, which runs 14 schools. Also, 3 members of senior management at Ark Schools earned c. £145,000 – apparently explaining their hyper-enthusiasm for converting other state-funded schools into Ark Schools.
It would also appear that one of the main ways in which these inflated salaries are afforded is through dismissals at the lower end of the payscale. 13 teachers have been told they are to be sacked at Mediacity academy in Manchester – although fortunately they seem to be putting up a fight, with NUT members voting to go on strike in response.
British state steps up repression of growing education protests
The past 12 months have seen a clear rise in the numbers of protests by opponents of the Con-Dem’s austerity-focused education cuts - including the Millbank occupation, the November-December 2010 student protests over £9k tuition fees and the abolition of EMA, and the protests at the TUC’s March for the Alternative in March 2011. In response, the police and judiciary are getting increasingly tough in an attempt to repress any form of opposition.
A recent article in Socialist Worker charts some of the most recent and shocking sentences:
Omar Ibrahim was sentenced to 18 months for throwing a spent toy smoke bomb.
Omar writes here in the Guardian in response to the sentence – “My crime? Throwing a joke-shop smoke bomb that I found on the pavement in the direction of Top Shop during the TUC protest on 26 March. Silly? Yes. Serious? No, not least because my throwing shoulder has been dislocated more than 40 times as a result of epilepsy. … We should all be worried: my heavy sentence, the first of protesters from recent marches to plead not guilty, is indicative of the way in which the English police, courts and government are heavily criminalising those who step out of line, however proximate that line has become.”
Oguz Ornek, now 19, was also sent to prison for 18 months, convicted of violent disorder, after the 14 November student protest in Whitehall.
The remaining custodial sentences were for people on the protest at the Tory party HQ at Millbank on 10 November last year.
Sussex university student Zenofon Mitchell Kotsakis, 20, was given 15 months in a youth offenders’ institution for throwing two light placard sticks.
Demi Wilson Smith, 19, was given 10 months for shouting at police and waving a stick towards them.
Benjamin Sunderland was sentenced to 12 months for jabbing at an already broken window with a chair and a stick.
Judge Tapping spoke of “deterrent sentencing” and accused the young people of discrediting the cause they were protesting about.
Another six people received non-custodial sentences.
These included Bryan Simpson, 23, who was charged with affray after the Millbank protests. He received a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months and 120 hours unpaid work. Bryans parents and many supporters had travelled from Glasgow and filled in the public gallery
Agit Goztas, now 19, received an eight-month sentence suspended for 18 months, 90 hours community service and £350 costs to the prosecution. His crime was a single kick to a wire fence.
Samuel Fowler, 27, was given 150 hours community service after police arrested him on 26 March TUC demonstration with two non-permanent marker pens and some superglue. He was charged with having an article with the intent to cause damage. The police had not seen him use the pens to damage any property.
Jack Coulthard and Sahin Tasyurdu, both 17 at the time, were charged with violent disorder from another student protest on 9 December.
Jack’s barrister stressed that the police had not accused Jack of being violent towards any persons, even though that is what the charge of violent disorder is for. Judge Dodgson replied, “I’m beginning to wonder why he pleaded guilty.” His barrister added that police had interviewed Jack without a solicitor present. He was told to complete over 100 hours community service.
The defence barrister told the court how Sahin relied on EMA. “£30 a week is vital for Sahin to pay for books and materials needed to complete his college course.” The court heard how Sahin has severe dyslexia but has persevered with his education. He was given an eight-month prison term suspended for two years and a curfew between 9pm and 7am for three months.
It’ll be interesting to see how harsh the courts are with the fortnum and mason defendents if they are found guilty (the first trial begins this week, and ends towards the end of the month). The Fortnum and Mason case details can be followed at http://fortnum145.org/
Further, ahead of the 9 November student demonstration to be held in London against £9k University fees, the London Metropolitan Police have threatened to use rubber bullets in order to control dissenting students. This has prompted a response from the National Coalition Against Fees and Cuts, which is organising the demonstration, to label the police position as ‘a deeply cynical attempt to pre-criminalise protest’. The NCAFC statement continued, ‘It is irresponsible for the police to use press conferences to ramp up the fear of violence – which in any case has in the past come overwhelmingly from themselves – thereby increasing the likelihood of it taking place.’ In a further instance of pre-criminalisation, the police have sent letters to some of the Fortnum & Mason defendants (see left) threatening them that anyone ‘near an outbreak of violence’ should not ‘stand and watch’ and that they ‘should not involve yourself in any type of criminal or anti-social behaviour’, the repsonse of the police to which will be to ‘at the earliest opportunity arrest and place you before the court’. Further, the police continue, this ‘could impact on employment and educadtional opportunities, your ability to travel abroad and applications for insurance cover’. It would appear, then, that the police are openly seeking to threaten a spurious arrest in an attempt to damage the employment and educational opportunities of anyone who even looks at a protest! It clearly begs the question of what exactly the state, police and judiciary are so scared of that they feel the need to ramp up the repression of education protests so dramatically. The answer, as Edd Bauer (himself facing a trial and already having spent 10 days in prison for hanging a banner over a bridge protesting Nick Clegg’s £9k tuition fees policy) puts it, is that ‘direct action is the only thing that the government will take seriously – that is why it comes down so hard.‘
All protesters need to be aware that the police cannot be trusted to act scrupulously in policing protesters. With sufficient legal awareness, however, it is sometimes possible to challenge these dubious practices. On Monday 31 October, two charges against protesters were dropped when video evidence of the SOAS protests that took place in June showed that, rather than a police officer being attacked by protesters (which had been claimed) it was in fact the police officer who initiated an altercation and then pinned the protester to the ground. “Five arrests were instigated by primarily one police officer who basically lied,” said Peters (one of the defendants) in an interview. Peters believes he has good grounds for bringing a case against the police for malicious prosecution and said he and the other acquitted parties will be seeking legal advice in this matter.
Another legal success was witnessed on 7 November, when “Dave”, a Millbank protester acting with the support of the Green & Black Cross, got cleared of Violent Disorder, avoiding years of prison. He had a good lawyer, pleaded not guilty, and had plenty of support in the public gallery. This took place in Kingston Crown Court and was the second person to plead NOT guilty out of very many who plead guilty. The jury took 26 minutes to let him walk free. This was a real, real result, and a very good sign that indicates the tone of public opinion and sets some sort of precedent for the scores and scores of people still to be sentenced.
Education Workers Face Bullying
A new report published today by Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences finds education workers to be particularly at risk of bullying at work.
The investigators note, “Workers in the public sector are particularly at risk of both incivility and disrespect and violence and injury. Within the public sector, employees in health and social care, public administration and defence, and education are particularly at risk” and go on to note that “education is the third riskiest industry” for experiencing violence at work.
The report is available online here.
As we know, the best way to kick bullying out of the workplace is to organise and build solidarity. Let’s make the bullying bosses work harder! Join the IWW.
Academies Consultation – ARK-style
An IWW member’s experience of ‘consultation’ on a proposed ARK academy.
I attended a public consultation meeting at Kings Norton High School on 10 October 2010, on the proposal to turn it into an ARK academy - and I have to say that it was far worse than I had actually imagined it would be!
I had thought that, whilst academies would be a form of privatisation, there would be enough safeguards in place and enough self-restraint by the people running the academies for it to avoid being too radically different from schools as they are currently run. Having heard from the people pushing this academy agenda I now think that is quite naive.
The 1-hour public ‘consultation’ meeting basically consisted of a 30 minutes incredibly one-sided sales-pitch given by 4 academy fundamentalists, followed by an attempt to shut down any form of criticism that came from the floor. The academy fundamentalists consisted of the ARK project director, the chair of the governors of Kings Norton High School , the Head Teacher of Kings Norton High School , and another head teacher from an existing ARK school in Birmingham.
The head teacher from the existing ARK school was apparently brought in to give an independent overview of how excellent ARK academies were – the irony that he was a high-paid ARK employee [and therefore clearly unlikely to stray from the ARK line!) apparently being lost on the organisers of the ‘consultation’. Indeed, he didn’t fail to disappoint – his opening sentence was “I can honestly say that becoming an ARK academy school is the best thing that has happened to our school in its history”!
The whole ethos underpinning the ARK academies was really quite disturbing – in fact the whole thing seemed incredibly sinister. In what appeared to echo some kind of bizarre 19th century workhouse logic, ARK announced that basically they have decided that if working class children are going to be able to get the same jobs as affluent children then they need to be treated ‘harder’, be subject to greater discipline, and made to work longer and harder than children at other schools. These were pretty much the exact words used (except they talked about ‘deprived’ or poor children rather than working class). The schools introduce more detentions, including Saturday morning detentions, simplify the process of handing out detentions, and extend the school timetable so that it runs from 8.30am to 4.30pm or 5pm. So it’s work harder, experience more discipline, and work longer. The pleasure that the ARK head teacher seemed to get out of his new discplinary role was also disturbing and not just a little bit creepy – as he announced, he now felt personally empowered as now he was free to discipline the children more…
In the meeting the question of who was funding ARK came up – and especially the rumour that ARK was funded by hedge-fund managers. In fact, the ARK projects director seemed completely unashamed to admit that indeed this was a charity set up by hedge-fund managers. In fact, it appears that main funding source for the entire charity is an annual gala for the super-rich. So, it’s basically some super-rich hob-nobbing event, where the rich devise and fund projects to take their draconian disciplinarian ‘flog them harder’ educational approach to working class schools. That is genuinely obscene!
The response by the 4 academy fundamentalists to questions from the floor was quite shocking. They were basically shameless! The first question from the floor was from a mother who felt that the children might get tired, and not have enough time to relax or play as a result of the extra hours in the timetable, especially if they are expected to do homework as well. As she pointed out, they would be working longer than herself as an adult was. The head teacher of Kings Norton High School basically responded by saying that if children are going to learn to compete in the adult job market then they need to start learning the skills and behaviour necessary to do so now. When it was pointed out to her that obviously the reason children are treated differently from adults is because they are children and not adults (and they might start adopting adult behaviour when they’re adults, rather than when they’re children) she basically responded by accusing anyone who failed to stick to this doctrine as having let down the children. In fact this was the response throughout – if you don’t agree to our doctrine then you’re basically responsible for the failure of your own and the community’s children!
And failure means not going to University – this is the carrot that the Head teacher kept dangling under the noses of parents – to such an absurd extent that at one point, when questioned on whether it was realistic to expect all pupils from a below-average income area to expect to pay £9000 fees, she suddenly launched into a defence of the Government’s fees policy. Apparently if we just think about it as a debt to be paid off in small amounts over a career, it’s really not that much after all!
The response to questions on the democratic governance of an ARK academy school was also quite disturbing. The Head Teacher had been banging on about how important it was to incorporate parents opinions into the running of the new academy. She refused to give any details, for instance, on the new timetable, as she claimed this would be worked out by the school in partnership with the parents. When it was pointed out to her that one of the problems with the academy schools is precisely that parent governors are sidelined, and ARK have a majority on the school board, the ARK project director pointed out that the new governing board will have 1 LEA governor, 1 parent governor, 1 staff governor, 1 community governor, and 6 (SIX!) ARK employees. This she claimed, with not a hint of irony, would ensure a good balance of representation on the board.
It was then put to the 4 academy fundamentalists that this was therefore a form of privatisation. In giving his sales pitch at the beginning of the meeting, the head of the already existing ARK school had spoken about how the parents at his school had taken a vote and decided that an academy was the best way to save his school. It was therefore asked whether there would be a similar vote on what was to be a big decision to quasi-privatise Kings Norton High School. At this point, the ARK Head admitted that it had been a mistake to use the word ‘vote’; instead he had meant ‘consultation’! And, the answer was no, there would be no vote – although no reason was given. Instead, though, the Head of Kings Norton High School reassured us that in a prior parents’ consultation (in which it turned out after some questioning that only academy fundamentalists had been invited to speak on the panel), she had personally asked parents leaving the well-scripted sales pitch whether they now agreed that Kings Norton High School should be turned into an academy – according to her own survey, 90% of parents did agree with her. It was then asked from the floor if it would not be more democratic to have a full referendum of parents, in which the arguments for and against could be aired, and then a decision taken – i.e. not a sales pitch followed by a survey conducted by herself! – the answer to this request was no, there would be no vote for parents on the quasi-privatisation of their school.
The question of staff opinions on the academy was then raised. At which point the Head wheeled out one of her teachers to basically pipe up with the official line – he might as well have said: “yes, I was a bit worried about moving to an ARK academy, but then I realised that the Head Teacher is fully supportive and it is almost certain going to go ahead, and she’s in the room listening to me speak now, so, yes, I think ARK academies are good!”
Finally, having denied that parents would have any say in whether the school would be handed over to ARK, having refused to accept that children should be expected to work less hard than adults, having refused to admit that it was at all sinister that hedge fund managers wanted to use their wealth to buy the right to run schools for working class children according to some kind of workhouse logic, it then transpired in the final question that the Head Teacher had already informed all the parents what uniforms to buy as the transition is due to occur in January 2012. Grinning, the chair of governors announced that he certainly hoped it would all go ahead – so basically the entire public consultation was publicly admitted to being an outright sham!
30 November: Education unions to take part in coordinated strike action
Trade unions across the UK are planning for a day of coordinated industrial action that is due to take place on 30 November. The major education unions have now announced that they will either take part in this action or are planning to ballot so that they can do so.
UCU, the University lecturers’ union, announced recently the results of a ballot on pensions, in which 58% of members voted for strike action and 77% voted for action short of strike, on a 42% turnout. The UCU strategy includes work to rule, commitment to strike on 30 November, and the move towards possible boycotting of exams in Spring/Summer 2012. The dispute is primarily about the introduction of a worse pension provision, in the form of a career average related earnings scheme that would cut the pension allowance by around £10,000 per year and also see increased pension contributions. But of course this should also be seen in the context of the wider conditions facing Universities and the ongoing move towards their part-privatisation in the light of the £9,000 tuition fees and the Government’s Higher Education White Paper that intends to introduce more work and more job insecurity for higher education workers.
The student movement is also gearing up for another year of protests, with the National Coalition Against Fees and Cuts planning a national demonstration for 9 November , Edinburgh students occupying Edinburgh University to mark the start of the school year, and
The teaching unions have also signalled that they will take part in the strikes, with NUT already committed to taking part in the industrial action and NASUWT recently announcing that it is balloting for action.
Whilst the Con-Dem government continues with its disastrous education policies that amount to the biggest move towards privatisation and the introduction of profit-seeking into British education system in the last 50 years - most obviously in the form of academies and free schools for pre-18 education, and the massive increase in tuition fees for higher education – it is about time that the unions sought to put together a coordinated response. Slowly but surely they seem to be moving in the right direction.
CNT-FTE International Meeting Report
On the weekend of June 11th/12th, representatives of the Education Workers Industrial Union 620 attended an International Meeting for the Defence of Public Schooling, hosted by the Education Workers Federation of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT-FTE) at their offices in Paris.
Unions represented were:
Union General des Etudiants Burkinabe (UGBE) Burkina Faso
Union Sindicale Italiana (USI) Italy
Confederation General del Trabajo (CGT) Spain
Solidarite Unite Democratie – Vaux (SUD) Switzerland
Conseil des Lycees d’Algerie (CLA) Algeria
Svierge Arbeider Central (SAC) Sweden
UniCobas Italy
Organisation Démocratique du Travail (ODT) Morocco
Confederation National d’ Travail – Federation Travallieurs d’Education
(CNT-FTE) France
Industrial Workers of the World – Education Workers Industrial Union
(Britain)
Apologies were received from unions in Tunisia and Palestine.
Against the Commodification of Education!
Under the slogan ‘Against the Commodification of Education’, representatives of teacher, education worker and student unions from across western Europe and North Africa discussed various aspects of the assault upon free education provision and the imposition of a neo-liberal agenda in all aspects of education.
Following introductions from each union represented, he weekend was organised around workshops on Access to schooling; access to research studies; the right to vocational training (initial and continuing education); working conditions and educational freedom. These were followed by a plenary session where groups fed back on the discussions.
IWW-EWIU representatives delivered a short presentation on issues facing education workers in Britain, focussing on Academy Schools and increases in tuition fees at university which will reinforce higher education as the domain of those who can afford it. We pointed to upcoming June 30th strike for pensions which would involve tens of thousands of teachers and we outlined the union divisions within education workers at all levels.
The Government announced yet more disastrous policy initiatives on 28 June when it published its Higher Education White Paper for England. The proposals have been almost universally denounced by educationalists on the grounds that they threaten to increase workloads for those working in universities, increase the cost of going to University, make universities even more a preserve of the rich than they are already, and further reduce the quality of the education received by those who attend. The logic underpinning the proposals is that Universities in England should be ‘improved’ by allowing a greater role for private businesses, profit making and competition between university-businesses to recruit student-customers.
The key proposals in the White Paper are as follows:
- A move to end the quota system whereby student numbers are allocated to universities. The idea being that universities should compete for students, presumably risking either bankruptcy or reduced fees (afforded by a reduction in wages?) in those Universities that fail to recruit.
- The proposal to end the quota system focuses particularly on allowing universities to recruit students with top grades (AAB and above), encouraging Universities to channel their efforts towards the best performing students, who tend to originate from the most privileged backgrounds and most expensive private schools. This is yet another example of the present government’s attack on the working class.
- A greater focus on measuring and publishing performance of universities in the areas of: student satisfaction, time spent in teaching and learning activities, assessment, professional recognition, costs, employment destinations and salaries, student union impact. Whilst this might not be entirely negative, it will almost certainly mean an increase in workloads for University employees forced, through further market competition, to seek to improve universities’ marketability. The emphasis on employability of graduates also further consolidates the worrying trend towards higher education as a paid-for path into employment - rather than a right to share in society’s knowledge, which should be available irrespective of wealth.
- Universities encouraged to publish information about staff teaching qualifications and expertise. Again, this is not necessarily entirely bad, but further pressure on University employees to gain additional teaching qualifications will almost certainly be attempted through increased workloads without any compensation in the form of reductions of other work responsibilities.
- Moves to make it much easier to set up private universities that run as businesses.
- Commitment to early repayment. The government wants to make provisions so that graduates can choose to repay their loans early. Obviously the option of an early repayment of a loan that for most will be around £27000 isn’t going to be an option for the majority of graduates and such a policy will therefore only favour graduates from the richest backgrounds, who will be able to repay early and avoid the interest charges that other graduates will have to repay.
Perhaps unsurprisingly these moves have been denounced across the higher education sector.
University and College Union (UCU) state that the reforms ‘will create instability in the system, undermine quality and threaten the viability of courses, departments and perhaps whole institutions’ and are running a petition of no-confidence (with already over 13,000 signatories) in the government’s policies in further education, higher education or adult education. UCU is also asking people to call on their MP to sign an early-day motion opposing the introduction of for-profit Universities.
The Campaign for the Public University have called it ‘ a dangerous experiment in university funding with no precedent in British experience’ and have called for opponents to make contributions to an Alternative White Paper that it will coordinate.
The Higher Education White Paper is yet another attack on education workers and the wider community. We as education workers in the IWW seek to resist these attacks as they stand to increase education workers’ workloads and inject yet further insecurity into employment in the higher education sector, reduce the quality of education deliverable in higher education, and increase the obstacles to quality higher education for those not from privileged backgrounds – all this at the same time as making it easier for private universities to make profit out of higher education and witnessing excessive pay rises for those vice-chancellors at the top of the university system, who stand to benefit the most from these developments. Many IWW members are active dualcarders within UCU which opposes these policies, and IWW Education Workers have been involved in the campaign group Alternatives to Corporate University which also seeks to oppose such moves.
At the recent international meeting for syndicalist unions based in the education sector, organised by CNT-F and held in Paris on 11-12 June 2011, the IWW delegation were able to sign up to the following statements:
—
Nous syndicats réunis à paris le 11-12 juin 2011, lors des rencontres internationales oragnisées par la CNT-FTE France, tenons à apporter notre soutien à la lutte des enseignants marocains dite de l’échelle 9 qui revendiquent leurs droits à la promotion.
Nous dénonçons vivement la répression féroce dont ils sont victimes et que le pouvoir leur oppose comme seule réponse à leur mouvement de grève et sit-in depuis presque 2 mois.
Nous appelons le gouvernement marocain à cesser cette répression et à répondre favorablement aux revendications légitimes des travailleurs.
UGEB (Burkina-Faso), CGT-E (Espagne), SUD Vaux (Suisse), USI (Italie), UNICOBAS (Italie), CLA, CNES (Algérie), SAC (Suède), USI (Italie), IWW -GB, IWW (Ecosse), ODE, ODT (Maroc), CNT-FTE (France)
[The international conference of trade unionists organised by the NCT-FTE France and meeting in Paris on 11-12 June send our support to Moroccan teachers fighting ‘scale 9’ which revokes their right to promotion.
We denounce the oppressive measures used against them and note that force is being used as the sole response to their organised strikes and sit-ins over the last two months.
We are calling on the Moroccan government to end this repression and to meet the workers’ legitimate demands.
UGEB (Burkina-Faso), CGT-E (Spain) SUD Vaux (Switzerland), USI (Italy UNICOBAS (Italy), CLA, CNES (Algeria), SAC (Sweden), USI (Italy, IWW -GB, IWW (Scotland), ODE, ODT (Morocco), CNT-FTE (France)]
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Les syndicats de l’éducation : IWW-GB, IWW- Ecosse, UNICOBAS, USI, CGT-E, SUD-Vaux, SAC, CLA, CNES, ODE, UGEB, CNT-FTE ; indépendants, représentant l’autonomie prolétarienne, pour la défense, la lutte collective, le contre-pouvoir et la transformation sociale. Se démarquant des pratiques des syndicats réformistes.
Réunis les 11 et 12 juin 2011 à Paris lors d’une rencontre internationale organisée par la CNT-FTE se sont constitués en une Coordination Internationale des Ecoles en Lutte.
De cette réunion sont ressortis des axes de réflexions et d’actions communs :
- création d’un groupe de travail de LMD et le processus de Bologne,
- manifeste communs reprenant les revendications suivantes ( critique de la marchandisation dans ses différents aspects, subordination de l’éducation publique à l’éducation privée, dégradations des conditions de travail de tous les travailleurs-ses de l’enseignement, réduction de la qualité de l’éducation publique liée à la mise en place des politiques d’austérité).
Cette coordination apporte son soutien aux personnels de l’éducation Marocains de l’ODE en grève ainsi qu’au mouvement du 20 février qui se traduira par une action de solidarité commune et coordonnée dans les différents pays.
