A November 15 protest in Mexico – driven by a right-wing social-media operation – has been miscast as a mass uprising against President Sheinbaum. In reality, the march was small, elite-backed and part of a wider attempt to sow unrest, argues DAVID RABY
Teachers’ goodwill hangs by a thread
With Covid-19 cases rising in schools and the testing system buckling, educators are under increasing strain. Now is time for a fair reward for teachers writes ROBERT POOLE
SCHOOLS are back and the coronavirus is on the rise again. All around the country, teachers are trying to make sense of the new regulations to ensure that they and their pupils are safe: year-group “bubbles,” masks in communal spaces, teaching from a small box at the front of the class — the challenges are immense.
But every teacher I know is glad to be back at the chalk face. We’ve missed the interaction with our classes and we know that, for some pupils, school is the one safe place they have.
The one place where they can escape the grinding poverty forced upon them by a decade of Tory austerity. The one place they can get a warm meal.
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The series unveils uncomfortable truths about youth alienation and online radicalisation — but the real crisis lies in austerity and the absence of class consciousness in addressing young people’s disillusionment, says teacher ROBERT POOLE
As the government moves to rein in academy freedoms, former darling of conservative education reform Katharine Birbalsingh cries ‘Marxism.’ Education columnist ROBERT POOLE examines how academisation has failed our children while enriching executives and empowering ideologues at the expense of democratic accountability



