The gap between the educational attainment of children living in poverty and those from better-off families is one of the most blatant inequalities here.
For example, by age three, children growing up in poverty can be a full year behind children from better-off families in relation to cognitive development, social skills and school readiness generally.
As well as being hugely unfair to children, this significant inequality is costly to the local economy. Save the Children estimates that “success in closing the gap in Northern Ireland would have resulted in increased economic gains of around £400 million in 2013, rising to £1.3 billion by 2030”.
A range of evidence suggests that the social segregation which results from the division between grammar and non-grammar schools is to blame for a huge gap in attainment. Protestant working-class boys suffer particularly from this division.
There is much evidence to suggest that all children—from the most academically able to those with learning disabilities—benefit from being educated in mixed-ability, socially-mixed schools. We believe the “shared education” programme is a sham that simply reinforces segregation.
People Before Profit support:
- Proper investment in integrated, non-selective education to provide a universal, accessible, lifelong education system, free at the point of access for all.
- Reverse the thousands of teacher and classroom assistant redundancies imposed in recent years and start to reduce class sizes to a level at which all children would have a chance to learn.
- Implementation of the “free school day”, whereby children do not have to bring any money to school, “voluntary contributions” are not expected, and school expenses such as books, trips and materials are covered.
- Support inflation-busting pay rises for all education workers, including all further and higher education staff.
- Support the “Free school meals for all” campaign which would promote public health and reduce poverty across all of our communities.
A Better Deal for Higher/Further Education Students and Staff
Locally, we trail behind in public funding for Further and Higher Education (HE). Additionally, the neoliberal mindset behind the running of our universities and colleges has led to courses being cut, fees being introduced, pensions being slashed, and a deterioration in working conditions for staff.
People Before Profit is for:
- Equal public funding with England, Scotland and Wales for Higher Education.
- Drastically increased accountability in university governance: Vice-Chancellor pay is overinflated, not transparently justified and wholly disproportionate to other university staff salaries.
- Abolish tuition fees and fund education through progressive taxation.
- Introduce a Basic Student Income.
- Introduce a Student Mental Health Action Plan.
- Introduce a Student Renters Bill to guarantee better, more affordable accommodation which is purpose-built for students.
- Cuts to staff pensions reversed and an end to precarity for PhD students and other staff who have been forced to strike in recent years.
- An end to gender and racial pay gaps in Further and Higher Education.
