Defend Free State Education For All

Gove Must Go!

7pm, Wednesday 29 March

Friends’ Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton BN1 1AF

£4 waged, £2 concessions, UCU free

Sky high tuition fees, university services contracted out for private profit, “under-performing” students turned away by academies, GCSEs rubbished, curriculum chaos… Gove has brought pandemonium to education. We say: Save Our Schools!

Gove seeks to privatise the entire state education sector, with free schools grabbing treasured local fields, schools forced to become academies with no local democratic control, and post-16 education increasingly commercialised. Teachers, students & parents must unite to defend state education.  Hear speakers leading the defence of state education:

 Veronica Killen  – UCU National Executive (Higher Education) and Councillor Warren Davies – NUT representative at William Parker Sports College in Hastings, are joined by anti-privatisation campaigners from Sussex University: Maia Pal – Sussex UCU and Michael Segalov – Sussex Against Privatisation.

The Coalition is pressing ahead with the privatisation of post-16 education

Access to post-16 education is being restricted as the Coalition pushes up university fees to some of the highest globally, and charges full fees for over-24 year olds studying level 3 and above in colleges. Students expect more but fees only partially fill a gap left by reduced public spending. The world’s 7^th richest nation, the UK is one of the lowest spenders on post-16 education through general taxation. Pressure is mounting on college and university staff suffering pay cuts, rises in pension contributions, work overload, increased casualisation and redundancies. The Coalition deliberately seeks to turn the clock back on education as Veronica Killen will discuss.

United together we can halt this assault on state education

The brilliant anti-privatisation campaign at Sussex University has shown we are strong when we stand together.  Outsourcing of many university services threatens 235 jobs without any meaningful consultation.  Campus workers, academic staff and students united in a campaign which has gathered huge local, national and international support, captured media attention and galvanised the anti-privatisation movement with its imagination and persistence.  Maia Pal and Michael Segalov will discuss the anti-privatisation campaign and the student occupation of the University’s conference centre, which united town and gown as never before.

Stand with teachers to fight academies

William Parker Sports College in Hastings illustrates the national threat posed by academies.  OFSTED “special measures” moved the school to a forced academisation.  Privateer ARK expects teachers to work additional hours for less than the minimum wage, offering contracts outside national pay and conditions standards for teachers. The academisation process is so secretive that teachers were forced to strike simply to win a seat at the negotiating table. 

Warren Davies will speak as NUT representative about the continuing dispute at William Parker, the lack of local democratic oversight to prevent things going wrong in academies, the loss of local assets and future restrictions on community use of school buildings, the right of students to be taught by qualified teachers, and why private owners shouldn’t control any academy’s curriculum. 

Simultaneously, primary schools in Bexhill find themselves downgraded by OFSTED and “advised” to become academies.  In Portslade an academy has been turning students away who are deemed to be underperforming and, in Hove, Gove wants to allow the religious Kings School to build a new free school on BHASVIC Field – the only available greenspace 4 local schools can use for their sports.  It’s Hove vs Gove – and it’s Gove who must go!