UNITE General Secretary Sharon Graham pledged her union would stand against the Westminster government’s ‘scorched earth’ approach in imposing brutal cuts on schools and education in Northern Ireland.
‘The government’s demand that the Education Authority in Northern Ireland somehow deliver cuts of more than £110 million before the end of March is genuinely a scorched earth policy.
‘They appear intent on making children in Northern Ireland pay the price for their disastrous economic priorities, including the multi-billion costs of the infamous Truss/Kwarteng budget.
‘My union will stand squarely behind our members in education in their fight against such punitive policies. It they are implemented it looks like the greatest impact of these cuts will be borne by children with special education needs and disabilities – the government’s approach is profoundly concerning.’
Under consecutive Stormont administrations, education budgets in Northern Ireland have increasingly lagged behind those in the rest of the UK.
Based on spending per pupil, funding for education in Northern Ireland is now approximately £108 million lower than it is in England, and far behind Wales and Scotland. The recent directives for a balanced book approach by the Conservative Secretary of State means a cliff edge reduction to budgets for schools and other education services.
Unite Regional Officer, Kieran Ellison, stated that the Tories’ threat to children’s education would be met by a united front of education trade unions in Northern Ireland:
‘Northern Ireland has gone from second behind Scotland to the lowest spending per pupil in the UK over the last decade in education. At a time when the Tory Prime Minister is championing the importance of education for future economic growth, it is truly unconscionable that they want to make children here pay the price for their hard-right austerity policies through such a slash-and burn-approach to cutting budgets.
‘Unite stands robustly against the ideology of cuts and austerity. The Tories will face a united front of trade unions in education – this attack on our young people will not be allowed to pass.’
- Members of teachers’ union NASUWT in Scotland will be taking two further days of strike action on 28th February and 1 March, in its ongoing dispute with the Scottish government and employers over teachers’ pay. These further dates are a result of the continuing failure of ministers and COSLA to come forward with an improved pay offer.
The NASUWT is calling for a fully funded 12% pay award for 2022/23. The current pay offer of 5% for most teachers amounts to a further real-terms pay cut, following over a decade of pay freezes and below-inflation pay awards which have left teachers in Scotland almost £50,000 worse off as a result of their pay failing to keep pace with inflation.
