NASUWT: Coalition government’s policies consigning young people to the scrapheap
The NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, is warning that the Coalition Government’s spending cuts and ill-conceived education policy will leave a generation of young people on the unemployment scrapheap.
Chris Lines, NASUWT National President, is today proposing a motion at the 2010 TUC Congress in Manchester that calls for investment in jobs and greater respect for all forms of training and education in order to get the country on the road to economic recovery.
Chris Lines, will say:
“The Coalition Government’s cuts are damaging access to education and training. “This has already led to cuts to access to further and higher education with tens of thousand of work based training places and university places cut this year alone.
“This is a betrayal of today’s young people.” “We have to invest in education and training if we are to compete in a fast changing world. “We have to have a highly educated work force – we cannot have a system the judges the quality of the qualification by the number that fail.”
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:
“The Coalition Government has repeatedly demonstrated its blinkered view that swingeing spending cuts are the solution to the economic crisis. This short term approach is jeopardising Britain’s prospects for years to come and limiting the opportunities available to young people.
“Investment in jobs, education and training should be the priority, to avert a double dip recession and to continue to build the knowledge, skills and enthusiasm of today’s young people.
“The decisions to scrap 14-19 academic diplomas, stop recognising vocational qualifications in school performance tables and the creation of new technical academies for 14-19 year-olds will recreate a two-tier system of education that will stigmatise and disadvantage thousands of young people.
“As the scramble for university places has shown, a broad range of training routes are required, each afforded the same level of respect and esteem, to provide the skills that will be needed to get the economy growing again. “Furthermore the Coalition Government is determined to pursue an idealogically driven policy of expanding academies and creating free schools. These schools are not cheap, do not deliver value for money and worst of all, have been shown to be largely unwanted by the public.
“It would be much wiser to invest this money in the economy by protecting jobs and services.”
ENDS
Stuart Gannon
NASUWT Press Office
Tel: 020 7420 9681
Mobile (and out of hours contact): 07966 198894
Address: 5 King Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8SD
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