The idea that the government had taken adequate measures to make campuses ‘Covid-secure’ was an obvious lie. By early November, the University and College Union (UCU) reported at least 40,000 students and staff had tested positive since the term began; an inevitable result of having students from all across the country and beyond mixing in halls of residence, student accommodation and lecture halls, with no functioning test trace and isolate system. But what universities lacked in public health infrastructure they made up for with punitive rules; many simply warehoused students in their halls, some hired private security and guard dogs to patrol campuses. While reckless partying students were blamed for the inevitable rise in outbreaks, several universities directly and illegally endangered lives, holding fire exits closed with cable ties.
Put students and staff before profit!
Within the suburb of Fallowfield in Manchester, one out of every 20 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the first week of October. This staggeringly high infection rate was concentrated amongst young people and especially the student population, and several infected students from the University of Manchester (UoM) were put into intensive care.
The response of UoM was to spend £11,000 to put fences around the Fallowfield student accommodation on 5 November, when new ‘lockdown’ measures came into effect in England. Students were not warned that they were about to be fenced in. Swipe card access to buildings was restricted and exits were blocked, and all those going in or out of the campus had to produce ID. This was the last straw, and hundreds of protesting students tore down the seven-foot fencing the same day it was put up. UoM agreed to remove the fencing, but increased security presence on campus. Students continued to organise protests, calling for Vice-Chancellor Dame Nancy Rothwell (basic salary in 2019 £269,000) to step down over the university’s handling of the pandemic, and after security staff racially profiled a black first year student, pinned him up against a wall and demanded to see his ID because he ‘looked like a drug dealer’.
Students organising with UoM Rent strike and 9K4What Manchester occupied Owens Park tower on the campus for two weeks, winning a 30% rent cut for semester one for all students in halls of residence. The students dropped banners reading ‘put students and staff before profits!’ and called for more to join the rent striking students in Manchester, Bristol, Cambridge and Glasgow.
The drive to open up universities in the midst of a global pandemic was not motivated by the desire to educate; classes could have been moved online from the start, which most universities did once students had returned. The real priority was to safely funnel the huge £9,000+ annual tuition fees and rental deposits into universities or the outsourced companies who run their lucrative student accommodation (see ‘Coronavirus: chaos for students as universities bank the profits’ on our website). The UCU and National Union of Students have failed to mobilise members to protect staff and students from the dangerous conditions on campus – the most they can muster are petitions and open letters to the government which are promptly ignored. Staff and students will have to take matters into their own hands.
Covid crisis in state schools
The British government’s policy of keeping schools fully open during a second national ‘lockdown’ is creating a perfect storm for infections. Just one month after reopening in September, schools, colleges and universities accounted for 45% of infections reported to Public Health England (PHE), with over 30,000 pupils infected. Early promises that if a child or staff member tested positive for Covid-19 the whole ‘bubble’ would be isolated and tested, have been replaced with PHE guidance that only those who have been in very close contact need to isolate. The promise that if two or more cases were confirmed in a school then it would be closed and everyone tested has also been proven a lie. Starmer and the Labour Party also demanded schools reopen despite the lack of a viable test and trace system and agreed school staff do not even need the protection of wearing a mask at work. State schools inevitably have been hit worst, with overcrowded classrooms, poor ventilation, and a lack of funding to cover PPE, supply staff and cleaning costs leading to a highly infectious environment.
After a decade of funding cuts, headteachers associations have warned that there will be massive staff cuts, thousands of schools going further into deficit, and larger class sizes if extra funding is not granted. Currently, schools can only apply to the Department for Education to reclaim some Covid-related costs if they can prove they cannot afford them, but only for money spent up to July 2020.
Meanwhile in elite private schools, the children of the ruling class face no such problems. Benenden boarding school in Kent for example could happily afford to pay over £35,000 for a diagnostic device to rapidly test staff and students on-site. Fee-paying schools have on-site nurses, larger grounds, smaller class sizes, and more than enough resources to allow social distancing and safety measures.
Staff and students in state schools face dangerous conditions, ever shrinking budgets, job losses, poverty and contracting a deadly virus. An independent fight back must be built now.
