Author: uea
Get climate change back IN the curriculum!
Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, has proposed that climate change be removed from the national curriculum. This should not be allowed to happen. Nobody should leave school without some basic knowledge of the anthropogenic causes of climate change and its likely irreversible consequences for human beings and the whole planet.
This issue is of relevance to higher education for two reasons. Firstly, such an understanding is necessary for the proper study of many subjects at university, and secondly, future teachers receive their professional education in universities.
On Tuesday, April 16th People & Planet submitted their formal curriculum consultation response with a focus on the geography curriculum and the citizenship curriculum, urging for key issues and concepts such as climate change, sustainability and active global citizenship to be retained. UCU, NUS, PCS, UNISON and TSSA all also signed this:
http://peopleandplanet.org/climate-consultation
Please read it to find out more information on the campaign. It is not too late to join in. If you click on the link you will find the template of a letter to Mr Gove. Please consider writing to him.
For more information about UCU’s work on the environment and climate change, see: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3386
Education campaign groups
UCU has joined with partners to form Knowledge Economy, making an economic case for investment in education.
Arts Emergency Service is an organisation that promotes access to arts education beyond those who can pay for it.
Let us know if there are other campaigns that would be of interest to UCU@UEA members!
Local events
Saturday 9th March – Rally at North Walsham 12.00 (within Norman Lamb’s constituency) to call for the NHS to remain public http://norfolkcoalitionagainstcuts.org/
Monday 11th March 7pm in Lecture Theatre 2, University of East Anglia – Coalition of Resistance UEA have organised a public rally in order to raise awareness of the damage that austerity is doing to society and to build for the People’s Assembly that is due to take place in June.
Talks from:
– Owen Jones (author and journalist)
– Natalie Bennett (leader of the Green Party)
– Vicki Baars (NUS Vice-President)
– Chris Nineham (CoR National Officer)
– Elliot Folan (CoR UEA activist)
January OGM – UEA welcomed general secretary Sally Hunt
UCU@UEA was pleased to welcome union general secretary Sally Hunt to UEA on 31st January.
Sally spoke to our General Meeting about some of the priorities for the union at the moment:
- A pay claim, but linked to that a request for consideration of workload
- Pensions
- UCU’s analysis of equality in HE institutions
- Casualisation
- Privatisation of the HE sector
Questions from members pulled out the workload issue some more, and discussion of the Research/Teaching academic career pathways.
Sally’s message at the end was that despite the challenges facing us she feels positive! And she encouraged members to recruit colleagues because trade unions are more relevant than ever.