Now Corbyn wants schools to give pupils lessons about trade unions

JEREMY Corbyn was yesterday accused of attempting to politicise schools by urging staff to teach pupils about trade unions.

The Labour leader wants schools to give lessons on collective action and solidarity with fellow employees.

But critics last night attacked his proposals, pointing out that schools should actually be ‘about education and not indoctrination’.

Addressing the Durham Miners Gala today, Mr Corbyn will say: ‘The next Labour government will restore trade union rights, but we need to also make sure young people learn about the principles of solidarity and collective action.

‘Children should not only learn about trade unions and their rights at work, but should be fully equipped to exercise and develop those rights.

‘Schools need to teach these values and together we can, and will, transform society so it works for the many, not the few.’

Mr Corbyn will stress that strengthening the role of trade unions will help reverse the sharp decline over the last four decades in the share of national income going to wages. We know that power in society,

‘It’s wrong to politicise issue’

and in our workplaces, has become concentrated in the hands of a few, at the expense of everybody else,’ he says.

‘But history shows those at the top have never conceded anything, without it being demanded from people below – things we all enjoy but now take for granted, like weekends and paid holidays.’

He will add: ‘For too long, trade unions have been marginalised, vilified and undermined, and workers have lost out, while more and more money lines the pockets of shareholders.’

However, Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said it was ‘quite wrong to politicise the issue and to seek to train young people to become union members. Schools have to be about education and not indoctrination. It looks as though Jeremy Corbyn is trying to politicise schools.’

And Andrew Bridgen, Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, said ‘vulnerable young minds should be protected from Marxist indoctrination’.