NASUWT: Archbishop is right to highlight coalition's policies

Thursday, 9 June 2011 4:01 PM

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, comments on the Archbishop of Canterbury's attack against the coalition:

"The Archbishop of Canterbury is right to draw attention to the impact of the coalition government's policies which are being pushed through without any mandate.

"The reforms have created widespread public fear about the scale and impact of public spending cuts and the privatisation of public services.

"In just 13 months, the coalition government has secured a depressing level of public anxiety which took the previous Conservative Government eighteen years to achieve.

"The education bill to be debated in the House of Lords next week threatens to demolish entirely the system of state education inherited by the coalition government and which is recognised by the OECD and other independent bodies as one of the best in the world.

"The prime minister has been forced to offer his personal assurance that he will protect the health service from his own government. The time is also right for him to give a similar assurance to the country’s children and young people.

"If it is not acceptable to sell off the nation's health care to privateers and profiteers then it is also not acceptable to sell off children's education."

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