Teachers In England May Strike Over Budget Cuts
Teaching associations and unions have responded to proposed budget cuts in schools and colleges by suggestion strike action may be taken. Lots of people are understandable upset by the announcement and proposed strikes have been speculated.
The move came after an increased amount of young people applied for higher education and caught the government of guard. Rather than commend the schools for encouraging more young people to head on to college, the government have instead said that they will have to make up a £200m shortfall. This will likely put the future of as many as 50,000 young adults in jeopardy, lead to a drop in school bursaries, and will mean that many will have to look for paid work instead. This is what most in the industry are really concerned about, especially given the current poor employment situation.
The National Union of Teachers have lashed out at the news of the drop in funding, stating that it is “utterly disgraceful”. They argue that this shows a complete lack of responsibility and will likely cause a ‘lost generation’ yet again, as was seen in the school leavers in the 1980’s. “This would not happen in independent or boarding schools and should not happen in the state system” they said. The cut came about from a miscalculation over the percentage of students staying in sixth-forms, colleges and further training courses. Many of these places have now received around 4% less money than they first thought and will be forced to save the money by scrapping courses and even teaching jobs.The NUT annual conference in Wales is where the issue was first addressed and lots of speakers voted for strikes at the educational institutions that were affected
A clear acknowledgement of the problem has been made by Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, who has said schools face a dilemma about whether or not they can fund college students this year. He blames the rise in young people wanting to further their education on the recession causing a lack of job opportunities. He argues that their are lots of students who are unwilling to enter the uncertain job market right now and would rather stay in education until the storm blows over