Teachers in London and around the country will go on strike this Thursday (17 October) in protest at repeated attacks on their profession and working conditions by Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove.
Highbury Green Party campaigner and NUT member Ernestas Jegorovas said he and his colleagues were left with “no option” but to take industrial action, given Gove’s attacks which are having “damaging consequences for pupils’ learning environments” – and his plans to “divide up our education system with Free Schools for the private sector to conquer.”
Ernestas said: “I am proud to be a member of the Green Party which believes education should be at the heart of communities and for communities, and should promote equality, inclusion, social and emotional well-being and responsibility. I and my colleagues love teaching and we do not take this decision to strike lightly.
“But quite simply, Mr Gove is not listening – and what’s even more worrying is that Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Tristram Hunt, has said his party now supports the expansion of Free Schools.
“I apologise for the trouble that the strike will cause families, but now is the time for Mr Gove to hear a fighting roar from parents, teachers and children to ensure no child falls between the cracks of our fragmented education system. So I implore you to support us in our fight for a fair and united education system for all children.”
Green Party Deputy leader Will Duckworth said: “I was a mathematics teacher for 30 years. Teachers care about children and only take strike action as a last resort. Michael Gove’s continuing attacks on teachers pensions, pay and conditions of service are demoralising the profession on which we all rely for educating the next generation.”
“Forcing schools to become academies began under Labour. Academies set school against school, introducing competition instead of cooperation. The pressure for heads to bully their staff has also meant increases in stress and anxiety amongst teachers.
“We need to work with trade unionists and sympathetic groups and individuals to tell this government that we need to save our vital services and keep them in public ownership.”