Lecturers will demonstrate about the squeeze on further education funding and proposed secondary school reforms - on the day that Ruth Kelly visits their college to open a new building.
Members of NATFHE – The University & College Lecturers’ Union, will take part in a rally outside the new building at City and Islington College tomorrow morning.
NATFHE branch secretary at City and Islington College, Sean Vernell, said: "As education secretary, Ruth Kelly is responsible for the inferior funding of further education which has seen adult education courses forced to close, and is the cause of widespread low pay and casualisation.
"We are disappointed that our management has invited someone to this college who is trying to push through secondary school reforms, which if successful, will create a far more divisive education system."
NATFHE regional official for London, Chris Powell, said: "The opening of the new building at the Camden Road centre of City and Islington College is of course to be welcomed. However, the thrust of current government policy will push possibly hundreds of thousands of places for adults out of further education. This policy does not sit well with social inclusion, a feature of the recent Foster report on further education."
Notes for editors
The lecturers will gather outside the Camden Road site of City and Islington College from 8.15am on Tuesday, January 24. Ruth Kelly is expected to visit the college at 9.15am.
Contacts
NATFHE branch secretary at City and Islington College, Sean Vernell: 07951-803776
NATFHE press officer Vicky Wilks: 020-7520 3207/07970-383995
Further education facts
• The funding gap between schools and colleges stands at 13%
• Between 1997/8 and 2005/6, schools’ funding has increased by 14% more than further education funding
• Teachers and lecturers top the unpaid overtime league table doing an average of 11 hours and 36 minutes extra work a week
• More than twice as many 16-18-year-olds study in colleges than schools - 701,000 in FE colleges or sixth form colleges compared with just 345,000 in schools (2003/4)
• 100,000 14-16-year-olds study in FE (2003/4) and this will rise to 250,000 by 2008
• Nearly twice as many adults study in further education colleges than universities – there are 3.5m adult learners in FE
• In 2004/5, 34% of applicants accepted on to full-time undergraduate courses in UK institutions were from further education colleges
• Further education institutions have a 72% pass rate – if schools were measured in a similar way their pass rate would be 50%
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