Parents and teachers on march to highlight crisis facing schools

PARENTS, TEACHERS and students will march from Sheffield to Nottingham this week in an effort to highlight “the multiple crisis facing our schools and the education system”.

Louise Regan, inset, national president of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), will lead a People’s March for Education from tomorrow until Saturday.

The march aims to spread the word about “massive funding cuts, teacher recruitment, over-testing and a narrowing curriculum”, the union said.

Ms Regan said: “We’re marching from the home city of the very first woman president of the National Union of Teachers to Nottingham, home of the last woman president of our union before we join the newly formed National Education Union. “Our schools are already in crisis. Children are being subjected to pointless and damaging tests. Teachers have very little confidence in the political decision-makers in central government. Parents are increasingly concerned and now children face the prospect of massive cuts to school provision if the government doesn’t change direction. This march is first and foremost about defending children and their education.” The march will pass through Dronsfield, Chesterfield, Clay Cross, Mansfield, Hucknall and Bulwell before reaching the Arboretum Park in Nottingham, where it will join a ‘Picnic for Education’, before moving to a rally at the Brian Clough Statue in Nottingham’s Market Square.

Organisers expect to be joined by families, local political candidates and others interested in the issues at the picnic, before hearing from union members, a speaker from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, teaching assistants, parents and students at the rally.

Sheena Wheatley, Nottingham City NUT secretary, said: “Education is a major issue in this General Election campaign and there are important questions for the current government to answer. For example, what do they expect the axing of free school meals to achieve? Where’s the evidence that grammar schools and segregating children at the age of 11 has a positive impact?

“How do they expect Nottingham’s schools to continue improving when they plan to cut £22 million from their budgets?”