Strike threat over sixth-form crisis

TEACHERS could strike over Government funding cuts which have hit sixth-forms across the country.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) voted overwhelmingly to take action, up to and including walk-outs, if teenagers’ education and teachers’ jobs are threatened.

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) — the quango responsible for post-16 education — informed schools and colleges of their budgets in May. But the amount was then slashed by £200 million before Easter after it admitted these were not the final figures.

Oldham Sixth Form College is among the institutions hit and the NUT fears that up to 35,000 16 to 18-year-olds nationally could now be left without a sixth-form place or pushed into oversized classes.

The union pushed through the emergency measure on the issue on the last day of its annual conference.

Bryan Beckingham, joint branch secretary of Oldham NUT, was among the delegates and said that the union was well represented at the sixth-form college and schools in the borough with sixth-forms.

He added: “It depends on the response of the Government. If they do not respond we would move to protect jobs and education. I think the LSC was incredibly incompetent, at the very least it seems to be very poorly managed. Mismanagement at the top should not lead to courses being cut and jobs going.”