Teachers and students march to protest Hackney Community College cuts

Staff and students took to the streets in protest over the proposed redundancies and cuts to course funding at Hackney Community College.

More than 500 lecturers, students and local residents marched from the college on Falkirk Street, Shoreditch, to Hackney Town Hall last month (Saturday 26 May) to demonstrate their anger at the ‘savage’ cuts package.

Hackney Community College is proposing to cut 55 jobs after the government slashed higher education funding as part of £2bn worth cuts in the 2012 budget.

Teachers fear cuts will mean a 9% decrease in course provision and a drop in student numbers.

The course Access to Higher Education, which helps unemployed young people get into training, is under threat at a time when more than 1m young people are unemployed in the UK and joblessness in Hackney is over 7%.

Other courses facing the axe include Arts, Travel and Tourism and Literacy Level Two.

Rose Veitch, Vice Chair Hackney Community College UCU branch, said: “These plans will cut off educational opportunities in a borough where last year’s riots demonstrated the desperate need to invest in tackling deprivation and social exclusion.”

She said despite cuts, no senior management positions were being reviewed.

The college, rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, is the training centre for the 70,000 Games Makers who are volunteering during the Olympic Games.