School workers striking over excessive workloads at The Garden School in Hackney earlier this year

School workers and campaigners are fighting back against closures and cuts.

But the Labour-ran Hackney council wants to close or merge four primary schools amid falling pupil numbers. The move comes after the council closed or merged six schools at the end of the last academic year.

The councils announced on Thursday that wants to close St Mary’s school and St Dominic’s school. Students at Oldhill school and Sir Thomas Abney school will either merge with another primary school or be closed.

Dave Davies, Hackney NEU education union joint branch secretary, slammed the “devastating effect” that school closures have “on staff, pupils and their families and the whole community”.

“Rather than prematurely closing schools Hackney council should be demanding the government increase education funding to reduce class sizes and keep our schools open.

“Smaller class sizes benefit all pupils.”

The council’s decision comes after a recent consultation where 95 percent opposed the planned school closures.

The same is happening in Lambeth, south London, where school workers have been striking against Labour-ran Lambeth council’s plans to close two schools and merge six more.

The cost of living crisis, the dire housing crisis and falling birth rates have contributed to lower number of students enrolling in primary and secondary schools across London.

School funding is tied to enrolment numbers—less students enrolling means less government funding for education going to the local authority.

And after over a decade of devastating cuts to both education and council funding, London councils are responding by issuing closures and merges.

But these closures are a political choice. Instead of councils closing schools, they could shift to smaller class sizes to improve education and save jobs.

Dave argued, “The main reason why Hackney and other boroughs such as Lambeth have a significant problem with falling enrolment is prohibitively expensive housing costs forcing young families out of the area.”

Over the last decade, Hackney council has sold off council housing to build expensive new developments that get young professionals in, failing to properly invest in social housing.

Currently, schools in England have the largest primary class sizes in Europe. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that the ratio of pupils to teachers is fifth highest behind only India, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.

Daniel Kebede, NEU education union general secretary said, “Packed classes mean less contact time with individual pupils and directly makes it harder to support each student.”

Jess Edwards, a teacher in Lambeth, previously told Socialist Worker, “In Lambeth especially, there’s been huge gentrification. No one can buy a home or afford to live in the area.”

She argued, “We oppose all closures, so we are fighting to stop them and make sure people don’t lose their jobs. Falling numbers are an opportunity to reduce class sizes and improve education.”

NEU members are striking “over no compulsory redundancies”. “We want at least a borough wide compulsory redeployment policy.”

School workers at the effected Lambeth schools are set to strike on Monday of next week.

Hackney parents and NEU members are launching a campaign to keep their schools open. They have called a lobby of the council cabinet meeting where councillors will discuss whether to go ahead with the consultation of the plan. This will be on Monday 30 September at 4.30pm.

How funding is allocated creates structural problems

A critical issue is how funding is allocated. Councils get funding based on their number of pupils, not their capacity, so unfilled places can create financial strain.

This creates structural problems. The ideal financial ratio for a school is 30 children to one teacher in a class. If that drops to a class size of 20, which is a better ratio for teaching, the government provides two thirds of previous funding.

Schools then struggle to balance their budgets as fixed costs like teachers and heating buildings remain.

With adequate funding schools would be financially viable at 20 children per class. But successive governments have chosen that schools should maximise economic value, not quality of education.

The 58 primary schools in Hackney currently receive around £30 million less than they would if their classrooms were full, the council has said.

Oakland, Calif., teachers prepare to strike as school board orders school closures Oakland students, parents and teachers fight against school closures South London teachers fight school closures Hackney gives Starmer’s Labour a bloody nose in council by-elections Oakland community fights school closures and cutbacks Oakland, California, march to stop school closures reaches thousands Proposed school closures, budget cuts provoke massive opposition among Los Angeles educators Ithaca Starbucks workers fight back against massive store closures No fight over railway ticket office closures proposed at London RMT union rally MIT graduate student workers launch unionization campaign Tesla Workers At Buffalo Plant Launch Union Campaign Wave of drug store closures deepens crisis workers face