‘Education should be free, not just for the bourgeoisie’

From the very moment we learn to walk, talk and interact with one another, we are connected to our education system. It is a system with the power to enhance relationships, transform lives, and influence our perspective on the world. But now, under the Tory government of the UK, it is also a system which is being crippled, commoditised and tailored to the interests of the bourgeoisie. In recent years there have been a number of detrimental changes to education in the UK, allowing it to become more like a product-for-profit every single day. It is turning its students into consumers at a terrifying rate. The introduction of the Teaching for Excellence Framework (TEF) is setting ‘quality’ education institutions parallel with higher fees, meaning that the richer you are, the better the education you will receive. Not only this, but the implementation of Prevent policies are wrongly monitoring foreign students and migrant children in schools, turning our teachers into border control too. These changes come not long after the government's decision to scrap maintenance grants and remove bursary funding for student nurses. The future looks bleak. This weekend, 15,000 students, parents, education workers and anti-austerity activists gathered at Park Lane in London, coming together on a mission to call out these horrendous Tory reformations to education. On this bitter cold afternoon, I marched with them.

As we make our way from Mayfair to Westminster, I witness a mass display of solidarity and anger. People chant and carry placards through the streets – some push their children in prams, some push their friends in wheelchairs, others hold hands, shouting together. It is a Saturday, and tourists spot the pavements. Holidaymakers in the streets stop to take pictures of the thousands of activists pouring past Buckingham Palace. Red smoke from flares colour a November sky, and the chants of “free education” echo off bank buildings. One group, a percussion band, play drums and whistle to keep the momentum going. Although it’s a protest against classist government oppression, there’s a sense of celebration too. Maybe it’s the joy that comes from being surrounded by like-minded people, or maybe it’s just the feeling of hope. I catch up with Charlotte, a university student taking part in the march, and ask her why she thinks it was so important to come to the demo that day. “All of these recent changes in politics, like Brexit and Trump, they are all linked,” she explains to me. “Cuts to welfare and education funding are consistently on the rise, and the mainstream political thought is slowly creeping towards the right. That’s why it’s so important to organise now.” “What’s great about today is that there’s so many different groups. Protests like these do work. They are a visible proof of how many people are committed to a cause” - Hannah Clare, Young Greens With the poor pay conditions driving education staff into poverty too, lecturers and teachers protest next to their students, standing side by side for a more equal education system. “We are two sides of the same coin,” says Rob Goodfellow, the President of UCU. “We are our strongest when we work together, and we are our best when we stand and fight.” As the march approaches Parliament, chanting becomes louder. I speak to Sasha Vale, an activist from Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, who hasn’t gone to uni yet. I ask him why students in further education have come out to the protest too. “Pastoral care in colleges have become of minimal importance,” he points out to me. “Sixth forms and colleges now focus almost entirely on grades in order to compete with one another – they neglect the mental health of their students.” In a world of job-hunting and grade-chasing, it’s sometimes easy for us to forget that schools, colleges and universities are not just qualification-making machines – they are a place for people to develop and to flourish, and to prepare them for life ahead. It appears that the Tory government have forgotten this entirely.

Photography Taylor McGraa