Revolting Europe
education
6 reasons why teachers and students are marching in Italy today
Up to half a million teachers, students and parents are expected to march today in Italy protest against PM Matteo Renzi’s education ‘reforms’. The spin is that the changes will offer a ‘good school’ to all in a country that suffers from a dire underinvestment in education – Italy spends less as a proportion of … Continue reading
Hot November: Italy’s students and teachers in revolt over cuts
It is going to be a hot November in Italy’s schools and universities. Promises by the Government to reverse at least sum of the heavy cuts in recent years are going nowhere fast, and the patience among students and teachers is wearing thin. In protest students will be holding strike on November 15, and teaching … Continue reading
Education and Class: Lessons from Spain
Vicenç Navarro In Spain there are social classes. It is impossible to understand what happens in Spain without understanding the huge domination that the bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie and high income middle class professionals have had and continue to have on the state apparatus, an influence that is reaching its peak during today’s government of Mariano … Continue reading
Why Spain’s teachers and students are striking
Javier López* The crisis is having a devastating impact on essential public services such as education. Until 2009 the public expenditure on education was approaching the European average, reaching 5.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Since then central and regional government have been brutally cutting their education budgets, leading to a 30.5 percent drop … Continue reading
Italy: Tens of thousands of students take to streets to demand investment in education
From Milan to Palermo, from Venice to Bari, in 70 cities across Italy, tens of thousands of high school students took to the streets Friday to demand investment in education. Local reports said twenty five thousand marched in Naples, 5,000 in Rome, 4,000 in Bari, 5,000 in Milan, 4,500 in Turin, 1,000 in Genoa, and … Continue reading
Spain: No Country for Old Men
By Nacho Goberna Spain is no country for old men. Maybe it was before, when today’s older generation were young, when shoulder to shoulder, with hope, they participated in building this society that we now share with them, or perhaps it will be again in the future when the time comes to leave behind the … Continue reading
Thousands protest in Spain against education cuts, reforms
Unions say up to 70% of Spanish teachers followed a national strike Thursday over cuts, according to El Pais and other Spanish newspapers. Classes in Spain – from kindergarten to university – have been affected by this general strike in education, which is the second in a year, against budget cuts amounting to 6,700 million euros since … Continue reading
From Cyprus to Italy: nothing to laugh about
By Alessandro Robecchi ‘In our country, the most common form of recklessness is to laugh, considering absurd things, that then happen.’ Of all the sayings of Ennio Flaiano this is perhaps the most frightening and also, unfortunately, the truest. Every ‘absurd’ case generates palpitations – and what if it really happens? So it is better … Continue reading
Spanish students take to streets against austerity cuts
Spain’s university students are protesting Thursday to demand an end to cuts and rising fees, and the head of the country’s education minister. A strike has been called for all public universities in Madrid while demonstrations are planned in Barcelona, Sevilla, Zaragoza and Granada. The action, which is also about staff cuts, was called by … Continue reading
Spain’s university lecturers protest ‘economic strangulation’
University lecturers were joined by their students in the streets of Madrid Saturday in a protest against ‘ economic strangulation’ Led by a group of 600 lecturers, the action was against cuts to public universities by regional and central government, and measures that will part privatize universities while leading to the casualization of the workforce. … Continue reading
The end of mass university
By Carlo Formenti In Italy and elsewhere in the West universities are returning to their old role of supporting the generational renewal of the ruling classes. The data released in recent days on the apocalypse facing Italian universities is impressive: 58,000 fewer students (down 17%) compared to ten years ago, while the number of lecturers has … Continue reading
Italy: teachers and students protest over cuts in 90 cities
Italian students staged demonstrations Friday in 90 cities to protest against ‘the sale of public schools and destruction of universities’ in action that coincided with a national teachers’ strike. ‘We are demonstrating to state our total opposition to the draft law 953 which would scrap students’ representatives in school boards and would enable private companies … Continue reading
Spain’s students and their families turn up heat on Rajoy
Rising student fees, regressive education reforms, a €4 billion cut to state education and the firing of thousands of teachers are set to be contested by students and their families as they step up protests in the coming week. Until now, it has been the teachers who have been leading the defence of state education, … Continue reading
Spanish teachers in mega strike
A million Spanish teachers went on strike Tuesday to protest against savage government cuts to education budgets. Parents and students joined teachers in action that resulted in the almost total shutdown of state schools, nurseries and universities where makeshift tombs were erected to symbolize the death of the country’s schooling system. Students held protests as … Continue reading
Students march in Barcelona against rising tuition fees
More than 25,000 students marched in Barcelona Thursday against rising tuition fees, according to the organisers. Convened by the Platform for the Defence of the Unitary State University (Pudup), the march against higher fees imposed by the central government for next year’s courses started at 12.50 hours in University Square and aimed to ended at … Continue reading
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