Concerns around this year’s A-level and GCSE predicted grade system, following the cancellation of exams due to Covid-19, have highlighted wider systemic issues of bias and inequality in the UK education system.
University of Manchester invigilator says he was denied ‘most basic of dignities’ during Covid-19 lockdown
Exam invigilator Steve Hanson reveals the lockdown induced ordeal he has been through at the University of Manchester, and questions why it took over 100 days for invigilators to find out that they were not eligible for any compensation. Steve Hanson has a PhD from Goldsmiths, is a book author about small town austerity Britain, […]
School children mini-reporters pose challenging questions for Boris Johnson on his Covid-19 strategy
Media Cub mini-reporters have asked the PM to listen to their concerns and want to know why children have been left out of discussions about their future, but he has not responded. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, supports the school student campaign, Raise Your Hands, with a live Q&A on Monday 6 July. Greater Manchester […]
Teachers in Manchester are concerned for the safety of children returning to school on Monday
Manchester’s educators talk about the need to keep students and staff safe upon returning to school but also want suitable support for children returning and adequate funding to enable it. Teachers in Manchester are keen for children to get back to their books and a formal education, but many have expressed worries over a safe […]
‘I really thought there were no Jews left in the whole world’: the story of a Holocaust survivor in Manchester
Sara survived the Holocaust thanks to the kindness of a stranger in the Netherlands. Others from her family and wider community were not so lucky and were murdered in concentration camps such as Auschwitz. Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed six million Jews during the Holocaust. Joseph Draper traveled to Manchester, as an ambassador of […]
As prorogation battles commence, the Peterloo exhibition in Manchester becomes ever more relevant
The Peterloo bicentenary weekend commemorations may be over, but if you missed them and want to know more about Peterloo, and its relevance to today, then Disrupt, Peterloo and Protest at the People’s History Museum is for you. With the current plans for prorogation of parliament, causing a crisis in our democracy, the exhibitions theme […]
The Six Acts, inspired by Peterloo, aims to reboot democracy now
It’s two hundred years since Peterloo, where those calling for democratic reform were slaughtered by government forces. A new campaign called The Six Acts aims to honour those who fell, in the struggle for a more inclusive democracy, by rebooting democracy today. And they need your help to do it! On the 16 August 1819, […]
The Riot Act: its 23 years after Peterloo and those demanding reform are still being slaughtered
The lessons of the Peterloo Massacre have not been learned and those campaigning for reform decades later are still being slaughtered by government forces. Review of The Riot Act by Rob Johnston, performed as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe 2019. The year 1842 was one of great hardship for workers across the north west […]
A democratic media for Manchester
Traditional media is in crisis. A shrinking number of corporations control more and more of our media, as they try to survive the Digital Revolution destroying the advertising-based business model they relied on. Journalists are laid off and titles closed, as the media corporations protect their bottom line and shareholder pay-outs. This relentless attrition of […]
It’s time for Manchester Museum to decolonise
Imagine that news emerged of 18,000 undiscovered historical artefacts relating to Manchester were illegally taken out the country by a museum in North Africa. We can only think what the response in the city would be in such circumstances. Political leaders would demand the return of the stolen goods, public protests would break out and […]