TUC backs UCU's call for investment in education
15 September 2009
TUC Congress today (Tuesday) backed calls from UCU for greater investment in education.
In the education debate delegates unanimously backed a UCU motion that rejected the 'continuing drive to privatisation of education' and called for 'proper funding for both further and higher education.'
Proposing the motion, UCU president, Alastair Hunter, warned that the country was looking at a generation lost to education or employment, condemned by policies from a government that knows the price of everything, but the long-term value of nothing. He went on to say it was 'economic madness' to pay young people to be on the dole and questioned a society that rewarded 'monumental failure with extravagant bonuses and condemns its young people to the scrapheap.'
UCU president, Alastair Hunter, said: 'One of the most poignant effects of the recession is the threat of an entire lost generation of young people: lost to employment, lost to education, lost to training; condemned by the raw force of capitalism's self-immolation, and by its ludicrously costly redemption.
'This loss is in stark contrast with the news that the same chancers who brought this to pass have demonstrated their continuing cynical disregard of the ethical consequences of their behaviour; for in the same year that profits dived by 31% and the Footsie fell by 33%, directors' pay rose 10%. Let us take no more nonsense about the cost of education from a government which condones such naked self-enrichment, and call them to account for their complicity in the collapse of the banking system and their abject failure to rein in the worst offenders.
'The alternative to decent educational provision is obvious: disaffected and disappointed youngsters condemned by the policies of a government that knows the price of everything and the long-term value of nothing. It is economic madness to pay young people to be on the dole when universities and colleges could be funded to teach them, to starve education of the funds it needs to offer retraining to Britain's workers, confidence in English for Britain's new citizens, and the opportunity to widen participation in universities beyond the sheltered confines of the middle classes.
'We are not looking for a free lunch: education more than pays for itself. There are economic gains to society through post-school education outweighing significantly the up-front costs – yet all the politicians can throw at us is the short-term immediate costs.
'Recent figures show that Britain has three times the number of NEETS (Not in Employment, Education or Training) as Germany and twice as many as France. We have to question a society that rewards monumental failure with extravagant bonuses and condemns its young people to the scrapheap.'
At lunchtime Alastair Hunter will be joined in Liverpool by four staff members from Tower Hamlets College. UCU members at Tower Hamlets are taking indefinite strike action in a row over job losses and course cuts. The strikers and Alastair will address TUC delegates at a meeting in Suite 7 at the Jurys Inn hotel debating how to create a lifelong learning society.
Proposing the motion, UCU president, Alastair Hunter, warned that the country was looking at a generation lost to education or employment, condemned by policies from a government that knows the price of everything, but the long-term value of nothing. He went on to say it was 'economic madness' to pay young people to be on the dole and questioned a society that rewarded 'monumental failure with extravagant bonuses and condemns its young people to the scrapheap.'
UCU president, Alastair Hunter, said: 'One of the most poignant effects of the recession is the threat of an entire lost generation of young people: lost to employment, lost to education, lost to training; condemned by the raw force of capitalism's self-immolation, and by its ludicrously costly redemption.
'This loss is in stark contrast with the news that the same chancers who brought this to pass have demonstrated their continuing cynical disregard of the ethical consequences of their behaviour; for in the same year that profits dived by 31% and the Footsie fell by 33%, directors' pay rose 10%. Let us take no more nonsense about the cost of education from a government which condones such naked self-enrichment, and call them to account for their complicity in the collapse of the banking system and their abject failure to rein in the worst offenders.
'The alternative to decent educational provision is obvious: disaffected and disappointed youngsters condemned by the policies of a government that knows the price of everything and the long-term value of nothing. It is economic madness to pay young people to be on the dole when universities and colleges could be funded to teach them, to starve education of the funds it needs to offer retraining to Britain's workers, confidence in English for Britain's new citizens, and the opportunity to widen participation in universities beyond the sheltered confines of the middle classes.
'We are not looking for a free lunch: education more than pays for itself. There are economic gains to society through post-school education outweighing significantly the up-front costs – yet all the politicians can throw at us is the short-term immediate costs.
'Recent figures show that Britain has three times the number of NEETS (Not in Employment, Education or Training) as Germany and twice as many as France. We have to question a society that rewards monumental failure with extravagant bonuses and condemns its young people to the scrapheap.'
At lunchtime Alastair Hunter will be joined in Liverpool by four staff members from Tower Hamlets College. UCU members at Tower Hamlets are taking indefinite strike action in a row over job losses and course cuts. The strikers and Alastair will address TUC delegates at a meeting in Suite 7 at the Jurys Inn hotel debating how to create a lifelong learning society.
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