Teachers are cleaning, unblocking toilets due to education budget cut

Here is what one man has done for Stoneraise School in Cumbria: fixed cupboard doors, leaky taps and door handles, painted the school twice - inside and out - cut hedges, pruned shrubs and done tree surgery work, cleaned up vomit and unblocked toilets.

Is he the janitor, a maintenance man, the caretaker? No, he is Mr Clem Coady, the headmaster, and he did this work himself because after eight consecutive years of government funding cuts, the school cannot afford to pay an expert.

“I do the extra work for the kids and because we can’t afford it otherwise,” he said. “I ended our maintenance contract and picked up that work. I’ve started doing every role I can do at my school to avoid making teachers and support staff redundant.”

Teachers’ unions calculate that £2.8 billion (Ksh372 billion) has been cut from school budgets since 2015 under the government’s austerity programme, and the Education Policy Institute said that 9,000 schools will not receive enough extra funds to meet teachers’ pay rises for 2019-20.

PROTEST

It’s small wonder that when teachers surveyed by their union were asked, “Where do you see yourselves in five years’ time?” 40 per cent of them replied, “Not working in education.”

The moment of truth for Mr Jules White, head of Tanbridge House School in Sussex, came when he heard a spokesman for the Department of Education say on local radio that schools had never had it better and there was more money in education than ever.

“I thought, ‘What a load of crap.’ I’m running an outstanding school and struggling to pay the bills. We haven’t got enough money for teachers. It’s never been more difficult.”

Mr White’s response was to start the campaign group, Worth Less? which reaches 7,000 head teachers and 3.5 million families.

“We are fighting for our pupils, families and local communities,” he said. “Heads today are finally holding the government to account.”

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A leading black footballer, Danny Rose, says he was “lost for words” upon learning of the punishment meted out to Montenegro for racist abuse of England players by local supporters last March.

The Balkan nation’s football authorities were fined 20,000 euros (£17,253) and ordered to play their next home match behind closed doors.

England defeated Montenegro 5-1 in a Euro qualifier in the Montenegran capital, Podgorica, but the game was overshadowed by racist chanting and monkey noises directed by the crowd towards Rose, Raheem Sterling and other black England players.

“I don’t think it’s a harsh enough punishment,” Rose said. “I just hope I don’t ever have to play there again.”

The British anti-discrimination charity, Kick It Out, said the shocking abuse called for the strongest punishment, but “this decision falls far short of that”.

Earlier this month, Rose, who plays for Tottenham Hotspur, said, “When countries get fined what I probably spend on a night out in London, what do you expect?” He said he “can’t wait to see the back of football.”

In England, pressure is building against social media sites to act against racist posters, but the response so far has been feeble.

One example: When a Watford player complained to Instagram about racist abuse, the company replied that it had examined his complaint and found no threat of violence. So that’s fine, then?

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A tobacco salesman who was given 1,200 free cigarettes a month by his employer and was later diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer is considering suing British American Tobacco.

Simon Neale, aged 57, worked for Rothmans, which later merged with BAT. The cigarettes were his to use or give away and he quickly became a heavy smoker. He often had 30,000 cigarettes in his car boot.

Mr Neale said, “It’s staggering looking back on it… I went from being an occasional smoker to being a heavy smoker.” He later quit smoking but last year found he had cancer, which, he said, “all came about from me working for Rothman’s”.

The law firm of Leigh Day is considering legal action against BAT on Mr Neale’s behalf on grounds that “giving employees huge quantities of highly addictive, cancer-causing cigarettes breached an employer’s duty of care”.

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More on the war of the sexes:

A husband takes his wife to a disco. There’s a guy there dancing like a king – moonwalking, break dancing, head spins, the works.

The wife turns to her husband and sighs: "You see that man? Twenty-five years ago, he asked me to marry him and I said no." Husband: “Yep, it looks like he’s still celebrating.”

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