Academies announcement: Unions must organise to defend education


James Kerr

The government’s announcement that all schools in England are to become academies is a declaration of war on comprehensive public education and national pay and conditions for teachers and support staff.

It exposes the academy project for the wholesale privatisation it is and nothing to do with tailored school improvement. Only last week Ofsted reprimanded seven Multi Academy Trusts for poor performance. The Socialist Party has regularly detailed the higher exclusion rates, poorer employment conditions, narrower curriculums and myriad of other issues in academies.

The policy would remove any democratic accountability parents, teachers and communities have. Limited as it is, we still have the opportunity to elect the councillors responsible for local authority schools but not when it comes to academies.

As NUT deputy general secretary Kevin Courtney said: “The government’s ultimate agenda is the privatisation of education, with schools run for profit.”

Trade union response urgent

This is why the education unions must respond with determined action to defeat this agenda. An emergency meeting between the teaching unions must be organised and the question of national strike action must be on the table.

Yesterday’s strike by sixth form teachers over funding showed the anger and willingness to fight of NUT members. The government tried to get the strike stopped in the high court but lost. If we can have a legal national dispute in sixth form why not on academisation?

This is part of an all out assault on our profession and education in general. There are live disputes across further education; primary teachers are discussing boycotting standardised tests; and reductions in funding are to be met by campaigns to stop cuts in schools. The NUT and other education unions should bring these different strands together in a national demonstration in defence of education in the summer term.

The government has tried to ‘go nuclear’ with the junior doctors but it is in danger of overreaching with the austerity and privatisation it is pushing through. Now is the time for the trade union movement to put this government in its place.

If you’re in London on Wednesday 16th March – Budget Day – be at the Old Parcel Yard outside parliament at 6pm for the TUCG’s protest against the Trade Union Bill, where NUT general secretary Christine Blower will be one of the speakers. It will be our first chance to protest against the academies announcement.