Salford college campaign: E-learning mustn’t replace teachers

Staff and students at Salford City College have been mobilising following the announcement of 57 job losses and plans to ‘streamline’ the existing teacher centred courses with a £1 million e-learning system. One of the participants in the campaign explains why staff, students and parents are fighting back.

Our protest outside Salford City College on Thursday 9th July was a great success. The culture of fear which has plagued the college for some time is now being eroded, and the 200 staff who made a stand against the cuts at the college are testament to the solidarity we have against the college’s executive management proposals, where staff are being forced to accept catastrophic job losses as part of the Business Transformation Plan (BTP).

At the same time, this executive has just announced the post of a new manager who is going to be paid £75,000 a year.

Staff, parents and students are opposed to:

• The reduction of essential mentoring and counselling services at the college;
• The ‘rationalisation’ of the curriculum by having only A levels at one of the centres which will create far more job losses in the long term;
• The proposal to have some teaching in the academic year 16/17 replaced with e-Learning. This strategy, which has not been proven to succeed academically, can only be made operational with a massive financial investment in IT, including the appointment of the new manager mentioned above. This type of investment should be used to protect jobs, not reduce the college’s wage bill for teachers.
• The Walkden site is also going to be scaled down in the plans, with the land being sold off and a consequent reduction in the courses on offer at that centre. This will have a negative impact on learners in some of the most deprived areas of Salford.

These cuts must be challenged by teachers, parents and students. A patronising letter sent home to parents by the new chief executive responsible for these plans describes the development of ‘centres of excellence’ but fails to explain that students half way through a course will end up being transferred to another centre in their second year, as a result of what he calls the ‘rationalisation of the curriculum’.

The young people of Salford deserve a better deal. Being made to sit in front of a computer screen without input from a teacher is not a credible option if you are aiming for high student achievement.

Students with mental health needs will lose out terribly and good, hardworking staff are set to lose their jobs due to unnecessary measures being taken by the college to save money, largely so that the executive can make a surplus.

The college executive management should be doing all they can to protect jobs and services for the young people of Salford, instead of proposing catastrophic cuts. Staff don’t want young people to be put off coming to the college as it is still the best performing college in the area.

Some of the proposals in the BTP are welcome, such as the development of car maintenance programmes at the City Campus, but we ask students, parents and the local community to join us in the fight to ensure Salford City College remains a brilliant place to learn.

We fear that the institution, if the proposals are unchallenged, will become a mediocre one where managers operate with a balance sheet mentality instead of helping staff provide excellent education for Salford students.

Please sign the online petition https://www.change.org/p/salford-city-college-stop-the-cuts-at-salford-city-college and support any action college staff are forced to take.