Striking City and Islington Further Education College workers in Camden Road on Tuesday

TEACHERS and support staff walked out on Tuesday at the start of a three-day strike action for better pay and working conditions.

Workers at City and Islington Further Education College in Camden Road say that both students and staff are being pushed to breaking point with class sizes increasing, an extra week being added to the working year and learning hours per student being cut. All of this on top of low pay and long hours.

Arjeta Bajrami, a wellbeing advisor at the college said: “The staff are stretched. The students need more support in general. A lot of them are feeling negative, overwhelmed, stretched with deadlines and pressure, and they have a very negative experience of education.”

Ms Bajrami has worked at the college for eight years, but this is her first time on a picket line because she hasn’t seen any positive change.

She fears that negative experiences in the college mean students are struggling to find jobs or pursue university degrees.

She said: “If students are leaving here and they have mental health issues, or anxiety about going back into education because they’ve not had a good experience, a lot of them are not going on to university because of that. A lot of them are struggling to get into work because of that reason.”

Sean Vernell, the University College Secretary branch at the Camden Road institution said: “Ministers don’t give a toss about places like this. They don’t send their kids here…

“If I go to a different school down the road, they get paid £10,000 more than I do.”

He added: “They keep cutting the guided learning hours, which are the number of hours of learning per student. When you start cutting hours, you end up doing more classes because it’s more groups. You’ve got to have more groups to get those students in. You’re stealing hours from the students.”

From a City Capital College Group spokesperson said: “We very much appreciate the work and professionalism of our teaching and support staff.

“This year’s pay increase of 6.5 per cent keeps us at or near the top of Further Education pay scales and builds on last year’s increase of 6 per cent (9 per cent in the case of lower paid staff).

“We are committed to continuing work with colleagues to reduce workloads and maintain the high quality of education for our students.”