ABOUT 100 education workers, other trade unionists and parents protested at the Croydon council meeting last week against the council’s plans to bring in academies in place of community schools. This protest was organised by local campaigners organised in “Save our Schools” (SOS).
These plans will mean there will be no community school in the whole of the borough. In response to this Croydon National Union of Teachers (NUT) balloted for strike action in those schools directly affected by the academy plans and received a 90% vote in favour of a strike, which took place on Tuesday 27 January.
The campaign has put pressure on the council to organise a ballot on their proposals of all those affected by these plans including pupils, parents and education workers, but the council has refused to do this.
There is a lot of anger over the lack of consultation but also very little detail has come out from the council. This protest was also supported by several other unions including Lewisham NUT. The Socialist Party supports SOS in its campaign to defend state-provided education in Croydon.
