There Is An Alternative No To Sixth Form College Pay and Funding Cuts

Sixth form colleges under attack The sixth form college is a successful education sector, but is under attack. Many colleges are planning redundancies, increases in group size and reductions in courses offered. Teachers have seen pay comparability with schools lost and face a pay freeze. Students will suffer from the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance.

Teacher Pay The sixth form college employers are seeking to freeze pay in This comes after a pay award of only 0.75% in , well below the 2.3% in schools. Teachers in sixth form colleges have already seen the real value of their pay fall – they now face a further substantial real terms cut.

Why the employers are wrong The employers’ stance comes in spite of their stated commitment to restore pay comparability with schools. Pay comparability is in the interests of colleges. Some colleges have funding problems, but the employers can to show commitment to teachers by starting to restore comparability. The unions completely reject the employers’ proposed pay freeze for

NUT Pay and Funding Campaign The NUT will continue and deepen its pay and funding campaign. The campaign will focus on the employers’ proposed pay freeze. The NUT will continue to seek to work jointly with ATL and NASUWT on the campaign. We will also continue to campaign against the Government’s programme of public sector cuts.

Why the Cuts? The cuts to sixth form college funding are part of the Government’s public sector cuts. The cuts are being widely attacked, even by former supporters, as the economy continues to struggle. Even the Government’s own flawed justification of the cuts is wrong - UK public debt is significantly lower than in many other major economies including Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA. Cuts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal have caused further problems.

The long-term picture

A History Lesson National debt is not new. It has been much higher in the past. Between 1916 and 1970 UK debt was much higher than it is now. Yet we were still able to fund the creation of the welfare state and the NHS.

Cuts that don’t heal Treasury estimate: 600,000 public sector and 700,000 private sector jobs to be lost. IFS: deepest cuts since at least Cuts reduce spending power, increase benefit costs and reduce tax revenue. Cuts are already slowing growth and costing jobs. March Budget: nothing to promote growth.

College Cuts Don’t Heal (1) Sixth form colleges face significant real terms cuts. Funded guided learning hours (enrichment/tutorial funding) being cut by 75%. Some transitional protection in but no guarantees beyond this.

College Cuts Don’t Heal (2) The funding gap between 6FCs and schools will be closed, but not to the sector’s benefit. Teacher pay and pensions are being attacked. Investment in sixth form colleges is essential to economic recovery – education cuts never heal.

We’re not all in this together Inequality has grown since The Government prefers spending cuts to taxing the banks. Tax and NI changes will compound the impact of pay cuts and pension increases. It’s all about privatisation, but public spending is needed to secure growth.

Education for growth A first class education system is essential for growth. We need to invest in colleges & teachers to enable young people to access HE. But the Government is cutting teacher pay and pensions as well as college funding. A Government that doesn’t value education doesn’t understand economics.

What can we do? Get involved in the NUT campaign against cuts in sixth form colleges. Get involved in the NUT. Build on the support for public services shown on 26th March. We know there is an alternative – let the country hear it!