It has been a summer of anger.
Judging by the network groups I’m part of, college staff countrywide were enraged by their exclusion from the 5.5 per cent pay increase given to school teachers. Many saw it as an outright betrayal from the new Labour government.
Having been involved in the successful campaign to elect a Labour MP for Darlington, I felt compelled to reach out to Bridget Philipson. So I wrote two letters, one for the secretary of state and one for my local MP.
Two days later, they were on the University and College Union’s ‘New Deal for FE’ page as ready-to-go email templates for anyone to send in. It felt like we had a movement!
Then the riots started and focus went elsewhere.
I watched in horror as Teesside University’s library windows were smashed and its sports centre raided by some of those who had the most to gain had they chosen to enrol there instead.
Invariably, FE will play a vital role in repairing the social fabric torn by these events. But in truth what has been laid bare is nothing if not the festering societal wound caused by the underfunding of further education.
People of all ages across the country have been let down by education and government alike. Adrift and vulnerable, they are increasingly falling prey to the toxic influence of online disinformation and far-right ideologues.
The inadequacies of the system – overcrowded classes, under-resourced teachers, under-valued courses – create a breeding ground for discontent.
Our sector works with a purpose that defies our burden. From managers wrestling with ever-changing financial constraints to lecturers facing unsafe workloads to student support advisors donning myriad roles to extend lifelines to these students, staff sacrifice their own health and wellbeing to keep the show on the road.
But how long can they keep darning the social fabric before their own thread breaks?
We need a new deal for FE, and we need it urgently
During the election campaign, Keir Starmer spoke about the importance of colleges in providing the technical skills to power the country’s growth. The expectation: to finally be seen, funded and supported. The actuality: Silence and a cold shoulder.
For those asking why, the answer is simple: We need cold hard cash, and the conventional wisdom is that there isn’t any.
Perhaps, but cash takes many forms. For example, fairer funding streams and dedicated capital budgets would mean colleges weren’t forced to pay out huge amounts on payroll at the expense of equipment.
Another simple but impactful change: Make colleges VAT exempt. No one questions why FE, which typically serves the least affluent, has been paying VAT for years. And it’s in this context that we’ve had to watch this summer’s backlash against imposing VAT on private schools (which serve some of the UK’s most affluent). It is beyond irony. It is hypocrisy.
We need a new deal for FE, and we need it urgently.
Why shouldn’t we be paid commensurately with the vital job we have been given of upskilling the nation? And why should we accept that we are worth some £9,000 a year less than school teachers?
Why should we have to continue to administer GCSE English and maths resits that we know are failing our students? And why should we put up with only a short pause and review on the defunding of applied general qualifications when we have spoken out in one voice about its dangers?
Why should we put up with endemic ignorance of our sector among politicians and policy makers? And why should we continue to accept occasional distant platitudes from a dispatch box in lieu of genuine, collaborative development of solutions for the communities we serve?
In spite of a brief ray of hope in the lead-up to the general election in July, it’s been an overcast summer for this FE observer (with the occasional outburst). But there is still time – just – to offset a winter of discontent.
Bridget, if you are reading, come to Darlington College. Sit with us. Talk policy with those who deliver it. Champion our students. Show them and the world that they and their skills are needed. Because giving people purpose keeps them out of the hands of extremists.
That’s what FE does, but we can’t keep doing it with our hands tied behind our backs.
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