Education unions to lobby MPs over BSF cuts

16 Jul 10
Education unions are to stage a rally and lobby of Parliament this afternoon to protest at the cuts to the national school building programme
By Vivienne Russell

19 July 2010

Education unions are to stage a rally and lobby of Parliament this afternoon to protest at the cuts to the national school building programme.

The ‘Save our Schools’ rally will be addressed by Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber and shadow education secretary Ed Balls.

The organisations involved include the three main teaching unions: the National Union of Teachers, the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. Representatives from Unison and the GMB are also expected to be present.

NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: ‘Cutting the budget to rebuild schools is a huge blow to those that have been promised the sort of facilities you would expect in a modern school. Poor learning environments have a negative impact on the education of children, young people and the morale of the community.

‘We are in real danger of returning to the crumbling inadequate schools that were a signature of the last Tory government.’

The axing of the Building Schools for the Future programme has been one of the coalition government’s most controversial actions. Confusion over which building projects were being reprieved and which were being axed led Education Secretary Michael Gove to apologise to MPs and local government leaders earlier this month.

Councils are considering legal action over the scrapping of their BSF schemes. Sandwell Council in the West Midlands told Public Finance that the termination of its school rebuilding projects cost the borough £200m in investment.

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