Teachers march over education cuts
Labour leader Corbyn to speak at rally about budget losses of more than £600m
TEACHERS, parents, governors and support staff from across London are being urged to march on Parliament and the Department of Education next week in protest over education cuts.
The London region of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has organised the rally on Thursday November 17 to campaign against funding cuts they claim will hit the capital’s schools particularly hard.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the NUT, will speak at the rally.
Last week the NUT and education union ATL launched schoolcuts.org. uk, an interactive map of England’s schools that shows the likely effect on every school if plans to redistribute school funding goes ahead.
The NUT says the calculations show London’s schools will be badly hit
Across the capital as a whole, the union predicts real terms losses to school budgets will total more than £600 million – equivalent to the loss of more than 16,000 teachers.
It says almost all (99 per cent) of London’s schools could face budget cuts in real terms over the next four years and one in eight stands to lose more than £1,000 per pupil from their budgets.
Next Thursday’s rally takes place a week before the Chancellor of the Exchequer announces his autumn statement.
Protesters will meet at 5pm outside Whitehall, opposite Downing Street, before marching past Parliament and the Department of Education to an indoor rally in the Emmanuel Centre SW1P 3DW, where Mr Corbyn and Mr Courtney will speak.
Mr Courtney said: “No head teacher should be put in the position of increasing class sizes, leaving building repairs undone or cutting staff and resources simply to balance the books.
“Nor should any parent accept this for their child. We are one of the richest countries in the world. We can and we should be funding our schools properly.”
Martin Powell-Davies, NUT London regional secretary, added: “We invite parents, governors and support staff to join teachers at our rally and call on the government to invest in children’s future by increasing the overall funding for schools.
“If the government fails to act and instead simply seeks to redistribute an insufficient total budget, the consequences will be devastating, particularly in London.”