Sam Hey, Manchester and Salford Socialist Party
The marketisation of education is a key issue that we must fight against. From skeletal school budgets, and exploiting apprenticeship schemes, to universities filling funding gaps with lucrative contracts with arms companies. The Tories have left no stone unturned pushing Britain’s education system to its limits.
How can we expect teachers to teach under the conditions they’re working in? They’re overworked and underpaid.
Almost half of teachers report their workload to be unmanageable most or all of the time. One in six teachers plan to quit in the next two years, while half of support staff intend to leave within five years.
With 80% of teachers saying that excessive workload is a barrier to getting the right help for pupils, it is clear that the Tory government is failing. To begin fixing our education system, it is clear that working conditions need to improve.
Strike action has been successful in winning pay rises for staff, but the government refused to fund them, forcing schools that are already financially stretched thin to cut costs further. And still, workers are paid less than what they need. All this while the dangerous Raac concrete scandal has been a physical manifestation that underfunding is causing our education system to crumble.
What’s at the end of a young person’s educational journey? A series of dire opportunities. One option is attempting the increasingly competitive scramble for university places, with students who attend state-run schools starting on the back foot compared to private schools, left with a lifetime of student debt.
Another is learning on the job with an apprenticeship, a popular option with large businesses who use it as an opportunity to exploit the lower apprenticeship wage. In their first year, an apprentice can earn as little as £6.40 an hour.
The Socialist Party is fighting for free education and training in this election, by standing candidates as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).
We say:
- Scrap tuition fees, and cancel all student debt
- Living grants, not loans, throughout college and university
- Well-paid apprenticeships and training schemes, with a decent job guaranteed at the end, for all who want it
- Access and opportunity for all – open new leisure centres, libraries, youth clubs, sports facilities, and careers services for school and college leavers, free at the point of use
- For a fully funded, democratically run education system – kick big business out
