In ysterday's Guardian, there is an article that reveals that the government have been in secret talks concerning banks taking some responsibility for providing student loans. This is yet another move towards the commercialisation of education.
This angers me a great deal. For too long have we allowed the idea that it is simply the individual who benefits from higher education and in turn this has allowed governments (and I include New Labour in this) to move away from the idea of universal education towards an idea of privately funded education.
In my mind, there is no reason why, if one supports free access to education at age 5, that same person will therefore not agree with the same principle at age 18.
This principle does not have to be agreed with on the basis of having a socialist outlook, although of course it is on my part. Indeed, as a country we need to move to a consensus where we appreciate that we all benefit from a highly educated workforce.
It is important that everyone is encouraged to achieve their potential, and it is foolish to believe that introducing privately financed loans on top of extortionate tuition feels will not discourage poorer students from doing so.
My honest belief is that higher education should be fully funded through general taxation. Tuition fees be scrapped and we should move towards the principle of free universal education at all points in life, starting from a child's first day at school, and continuing through to mature students.
It should be the intention of anyone who believes in equality of opportunity to ensure that funds are set aside to educate the population, and it is essential that the extreme cuts put into place by the current government are overturned to ensure that the UK can have high quality education provision, at all levels.
Sunday 26 June 2011
Friday 3 June 2011
An Under-Valued Asset
When I was a staff briefing last week, one of my colleagues took a great deal of exception to the use of the word "asset" when referring to buildings, but not when referring to staff. This is in the light of a briefing to a department facing cuts of 55% by next April.
Now, of course this is just a matter of semantics. Yes, of course staff are an asset to the employer, or at least they should be. In this instance however, the speaker was referring to the council's Asset Strategy, which specifically refers to council land and property.
However, over the last couple of days, this matter has come to the fore again. Thankfully not yet in my neck of the woods, although this is only a matter of time. Our near neighbours, Birmingham City Council, intend to outsource over 100 jobs to India in a cost cutting strategy. From what I can tell, this is purely because staff costs are too high over here. However, these posts are from the IT teams, which, in local governments generally, pay far below private sector employers in the field. It certainly seems that Birmingham City Council do not see existing staff as a valuable asset.
Then this morning, whilst reading the paper, I came across an article which revealed that Oxford County Council plans to replace professional librarians with volunteers. Now, firstly this beggars the question as to whether the Council is meaning to replace Library Assistants with volunteers, or the postgraduate professionals who are already under valued.
For those of you who may not know, I am a fully qualified librarian, having achieved a postgraduate diploma in Information and Library Studies in 2008. Three years on, I have yet to find a qualified post, and the paraprofessional posts are either disappearing, or wanting more and more for the money. When I speak of the poorly paid librarian, put this into perspective; last month there was a College Librarian post advertised in Worcester asking for less than 13k per annum. This was a full time post and specified that a professional qualification was needed.
If therefore it is the Librarians who are to go, one must ask as to how such poorly paid employees within local government can be replaced by volunteers. Is the state to fund the three years of undergraduate or one year of postgraduate study that would equip them for maintaining a collection? There is a great deal that goes on in those offices behind the Issue Desk, and I'm not sure that Oxfordshire County Council quite realise.
The cynical part of me thinks that maybe they do, and this is their ploy to destroy librarians from within. If they fail themselves, it's not the council who make the cuts. I call it the Eric Pickles mentality.
Now, of course this is just a matter of semantics. Yes, of course staff are an asset to the employer, or at least they should be. In this instance however, the speaker was referring to the council's Asset Strategy, which specifically refers to council land and property.
However, over the last couple of days, this matter has come to the fore again. Thankfully not yet in my neck of the woods, although this is only a matter of time. Our near neighbours, Birmingham City Council, intend to outsource over 100 jobs to India in a cost cutting strategy. From what I can tell, this is purely because staff costs are too high over here. However, these posts are from the IT teams, which, in local governments generally, pay far below private sector employers in the field. It certainly seems that Birmingham City Council do not see existing staff as a valuable asset.
Then this morning, whilst reading the paper, I came across an article which revealed that Oxford County Council plans to replace professional librarians with volunteers. Now, firstly this beggars the question as to whether the Council is meaning to replace Library Assistants with volunteers, or the postgraduate professionals who are already under valued.
For those of you who may not know, I am a fully qualified librarian, having achieved a postgraduate diploma in Information and Library Studies in 2008. Three years on, I have yet to find a qualified post, and the paraprofessional posts are either disappearing, or wanting more and more for the money. When I speak of the poorly paid librarian, put this into perspective; last month there was a College Librarian post advertised in Worcester asking for less than 13k per annum. This was a full time post and specified that a professional qualification was needed.
If therefore it is the Librarians who are to go, one must ask as to how such poorly paid employees within local government can be replaced by volunteers. Is the state to fund the three years of undergraduate or one year of postgraduate study that would equip them for maintaining a collection? There is a great deal that goes on in those offices behind the Issue Desk, and I'm not sure that Oxfordshire County Council quite realise.
The cynical part of me thinks that maybe they do, and this is their ploy to destroy librarians from within. If they fail themselves, it's not the council who make the cuts. I call it the Eric Pickles mentality.
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