Education Follow

Around 300 people protested against course closures and staff redundancies at Keele university on Thursday of last week.

Members of the UCU union and other protesters are set to lobby the council of Keele university on Thursday of this week over the threatened redundancy of 38 of the 67 staff in the School of Economic and Management Studies.

Lecturers at Glasgow Metropolitan College entered the third week of their pay dispute with a two-day strike on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, and are due to strike on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

Some 45,000 Further and Adult Education lecturers in the University College Union (UCU) are being balloted for strike action over pay alongside teachers on 24 April.

Teachers at the NUT union conference highlighted the issue of army involvement in education by voting on Tuesday to oppose army recruitment in schools.

Teachers took the lead in the revolt against Gordon Brown’s public sector pay limit last weekend when the NUT union’s conference voted unanimously to call for more strike action.

The UCU union is balloting members in further education (FE) colleges in England to take strike action in support of a better pay deal. Our pay claim, agreed with other FE unions calls for a 6 percent increase or £1,500, whichever is the greater.

Delegates agreed that this years’ conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) was one of the most enthusiastic and left wing ever.

An important debate on classroom behaviour took place at conference, at a time when panic about violence among children is leading to some schools introducing "airport style" metal detectors, on-site police officers and increased surveillance of students.

Workload was raised regularly at conference. A recent School Teachers Review Body (STRB) report found that primary school teachers were now working on average 52 hours a week. Teachers were clear that workload cannot be separated from other issues such as class size and pay.

A major theme of NUT conference was fighting for a different vision of education. Time after time delegates referred to the Unicef report that placed children in Britain 21 out of 21 in a league table of the well-being and happiness of children in the richest countries.

Conference voted overwhelmingly to support a motion opposing military recruitment in schools and to support teachers, students and parents who choose not to take part in events organised by the military.