Protest at cutbacks in further education

Published on 07/10/2012 00:00

TEACHERS and lecturers took to the streets yesterday to protest against cutbacks in Scotland’s further education sector.

Around 200 members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) marched through Glasgow city centre to highlight what they see as “deep” cuts to teaching budgets, staffing levels and training opportunities at the country’s colleges.

They claim that FE coll­eges are being hit particularly hard by government austerity measures.

Union bosses said the past two years have seen funding cuts of 20 per cent to colleges’ teaching budgets, leading to 1,300 fewer FE college staff in the last year.

Recent figures also reveal a drop of 42,000 students in colleges “at a time when youth unemployment is at record levels and the need for further education and training has never been higher”, the union said.

Speaking at the march, Daniel Holland, a maths lecturer at Edinburgh College, said: “We’re trying to fight any further cuts. The FE sector is one that needs to grow.

“We’ve got rapidly rising unemployment and FE is the one that has to pick up the pieces of that.

“I get the feeling the government are never quite sure what to do with 
further education.

“We need to put a stop to any further cuts. [Education Secretary] Mike Russell, in particular, really needs to engage with the further education sector much more.”

Holland said working life was becoming increasingly difficult for college lecturers.

“We’ve seen class sizes increase, we’re seeing an increasing number of people go off sick because of the added pressure,” he said.