Education report 'weaponising educational inequalities', UCU says

Calling for more investment in education to tackle disadvantage, UCU general secretary Jo Grady said:

'All children deserve to succeed, but this report will be remembered for its divisiveness and for what looks and smells like a weaponising of educational inequalities to suit a different agenda.  

'Entrenched poverty, devastating cuts to early years support and schools funding, thousands of job losses in further education, and a university system that burdens students with debt are the places where the committee and government should be looking, rather than diverting attention away from the unavoidable truth that Conservative government policy is responsible for holding all working class communities back. 

'We need to see massive investment in education to help tackle disadvantage and MPs need to join with us in demanding the rebuilding of our further education colleges after years of neglect, and for the replacing of the punitive university tuition fees system with a publicly funded model. Alongside this, we need to see huge investment from government in creating high-quality jobs, so that when working class people enter the job market, they can earn decent wages.'