People Before Profit spokesperson Shaun Harkin said:
“Today I and other political representatives met with a network of Primary School Principals in Derry to hear their concerns about the education funding crisis and their plans for action.
Per pupil funding has been slashed year on year. As a consequence, the Principals made it clear schools are on their knees.
Years of relentless cuts mean teachers and assistants are being laid-off, Special Education Needs can’t be met, schools can’t be painted or basic maintenance carried out, and, class sizes are increasing.
As a result, children’s education is being sacrificed.
The Principals say they will no longer stay silent on the impact of the funding cuts and the systematic failure of the political establishment, in both Stormont and Westminster, when it comes to safeguarding education.
Education is a Civil Right. We need a new Civil Rights movement involving parents, students, educators and school staff to fight for permanent core funding that gives every child the education they deserve.
The scale of the crisis makes it abundantly clear we need to do things differently if we’re to save our education system from being run into the ground along with our other prized public services.
For Civil Rights to be protected and won we need to be prepared for civil disobedience. We need to be on streets in the largest possible numbers to put pressure on the decision makers here and in London.
We encourage the broadest support for the mobilisations to increase education funding. We have seen time on time again the Tories and Stormont parties find money when enough pressure is applied from below. We need to unite now to do this.
