Labour leader’s attack on government’s ‘academisation’ plan at NUT conference comes as teachers consider strike action

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Jeremy Corbyn will accuse the government of overseeing a crisis in British schools, as he becomes the first party leader in at least 40 years to address the National Union of Teachers’ annual conference.

Corbyn will say on Friday that ministers are trying to “shut parents out of a say in how their children’s schools are run”, in a speech that will attack an overhaul of education announced by the Conservative party last week.

“George Osborne used the budget to announce the forced academisation of all schools. This is an ideological attack on teachers and on local and parental accountability – an attack which was nowhere in their manifesto at the last general election.



“The Tories want to shut parents out of a say in how their children’s schools are run. I want schools accountable to their parents and their communities – not to those pushing to be first in line for the asset stripping of our education system.”

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He will add: “There is a crisis in our schools now ... Children are facing rising class sizes; there is a shortage of teachers, and parents already face a crisis in school places.”

Corbyn’s comments are likely to be warmly received by NUT delegates in Brighton, after the union said it was preparing emergency plans to oppose the education white paper, including possible strike action to be voted on by the conference.

Christine Blower, the NUT’s general secretary, said she believed there was “wide and deep” opposition to the government’s plans, and that the NUT would seek to build a coalition with Conservative councillors who were unhappy at losing control of schools as well as through the House of Lords.

The NUT published a letter it has sent Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, this week, asking for the evidence behind her claims that academies produced better results for pupils.

Kevin Courtney, the NUT’s deputy general secretary, said the white paper appeared to have been written “on the back of fag packet”. “We think the white paper is evidence-free,” said Courtney. “There is no systemic evidence to justify the biggest change in education we have seen.

“It’s bigger than the comprehensivisation of the 1960s, it’s bigger than the 1944 Education Act; it probably goes back to the 19th century in terms of the scale it represents.”

JeremyCorbyn4PM (@JeremyCorbyn4PM) JC to speak at @NUTonline Teachers' conference - more than a decade after senior Labour figures attended #solidarity https://t.co/8mICbxHYQY

Blower said Corbyn had asked to address the conference. “He was very keen to come,” she said.

He will argue that forcing every school to become an academy will do nothing to address key problems, and will instead mean another £700m spent on “needless reorganisation” that does not address issues that matter to parents or teachers.

Corbyn’s speech – which was announced on Twitter just a few hours before the conference began – follows a period of rocky relations between Labour and the NUT.

Senior party figures stopped appearing regularly after a hostile reception for Estelle Morris when she was education secretary. In 2002, she faced heckling and a slow handclap. Afterwards, Lady Morris said: “If I told them that tomorrow was Sunday, I think they’d say it wasn’t and pass a motion against it.”



In 1995, David Blunkett, then Labour’s education spokesman, was trapped in a room for 30 minutes after being pursued by activists shouting: “Sack the Tories, not the teachers!”

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Labour’s own academy policy in power led to run-ins with the unions, and the relationship particularly soured with the NUT. Corbyn’s position on the left of his party has meant a close relationship with the unions, which hope he will take a tougher line than New Labour over the plans. His speech is designed to reach out to teachers.



He will add: “The pressure of work forced more teachers to quit last year than ever – over 50,000 – and the government has now missed its trainee teacher recruitment targets for the last four years in a row.



“That has resulted in half a million children now being taught in classes of over 31 in primary schools.



“One in four schools are increasing their use of supply teachers; one in six are using non-specialists to cover vacancies; and more than one in 10 are resorting to using unqualified staff to teach lessons.



“Labour will work with you, with parents and pupils, with local authorities and with our communities to defend education and stop these plans for forced academisation.”