Education Follow

The Socialist Teachers Alliance (STA) is backing Roger King as candidate for the upcoming elections for vice president of the NUT teachers’ union. Roger is a leading activist in the NUT.

Campaigners in Waltham Forest in east London are fighting to defend school meals. The council has decided to get rid of Waltham Forest Catering as a way of cutting costs.

Teachers are also moving towards action over pay. Kevin Courtney is a member of the NUT teachers’ union national executive. He told Socialist Worker, "Teachers are in the second year of a two year pay deal. We received a 2.5 percent pay increase in September 2006 and are due to get 2.5 percent this September.

Harlow college Lecturers at Harlow college in Essex have voted for strikes over management’s decision to make staff reapply for their jobs – with longer hours and for less pay.

There has been a series of horror stories about academy schools recently, such as Thomas Deacon academy in Peterborough – built deliberately without a playground – or Marlowe Academy in Kent which took history, geography and languages off the curriculum.

Bradford College management and the University and College Union (UCU), today jointly condemned government policies which are jeopardising 124 adult education courses.

Teaching staff at Harlow College – members of the UCU union – have voted for strike action as part of a campaign to defend their contracts and jobs.

London mayor Ken Livingstone has found an additional £15 million for Esol (English for Speakers of Other Languages) provision in London.

Wakefield public meeting Nearly 50 people attended the first public meeting against a number of schools in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, leaving local authority control and becoming trusts.

The 205 lecturers at Harlow College in Essex are holding a strike ballot after management announced redundancies and changes to terms and conditions.

Lecturers at West Notts College in Mansfield have rejected the proposed part ­privatisation of the college.

Last Saturday 35 UCU union members from 18 different London colleges came to an activists’ meeting. It was one of the most exciting meetings that we have had for a long time.