Scrap nukes- invest in education

Hiro Hayashi describes the recent student protests against the coalition government's education cuts and argues that the UK should instead scrap Trident and save billions.
 
Over recent weeks and months, many thousands of students have taken to the streets across the UK to demonstrate against the coalition government’s education policies.
 
Protesters voiced their angry opposition to decisions such as the raising of the cap on tuition fees to £9,000.
 
The government also plans to end the education maintenance allowance (EMA), despite education secretary Michael Gove denying earlier in the year that this was Conservative policy.
 
The EMA has a long history dating back to as early as 1944 and in recent years has functioned as a means-tested system for supporting 16-19 year old students from lower-income families.
 
Chancellor George Osborne announced that the £30 weekly payment for key stage three students was to be replaced by ‘more targeted support’, but has not yet revealed what this will entail.
 
Gove was also at the centre of controversy as he revealed plans to cut £162 million of sports funding in schools even as preparations for the 2012 Olympics and the 2018 World Cup bid were in progress.
 
More widely, students and young people on marches and during occupations, articulated a more general concern with the government’s overall austerity agenda. ‘No Trident’ placards could also regularly be seen at the protests.
 
At a time when key public services are facing such severe cuts, it is thus important to consider the billions that are being wasted on Trident- the UK's nuclear weapons system.
 
For whilst the education budget- which benefits people across society- faces unprecedented reductions, the government continues to spend billions every year on nuclear weapons- which benefit no-one, except arms companies. 
 
The government has estimated costs for Trident to be £15-£20 billion, yet more realistic estimates suggest the final cost could be four to five times as much as this. 
 
By comparison, total university funding was £25 billion in 2008/09. Tuition fees, including fees paid by postgraduate and overseas students, currently amount to approximately over a third of this figure.
 
Thus, of the approximate £7,000 which it costs to teach the average undergraduate student, just over £3,000 currently comes from fees and the rest from government funding.
 
Scrapping Trident would not alone provide the solution to the problem of funding higher education. But any cuts must be judged by their value to society- and a majority of British people now want to see the UK scrap its nuclear weapons -whereas educations cuts are clearly deeply unpopular.
 
The coalition government’s decision to pursue Trident replacement has thus come under further scrutiny and caused great concern amongst young people and students.

Opportunities for youth to raise their concerns about Britain’s nuclear arms programme are now increasing and are perhaps more important than ever.

There are lots of things that students and young people can do to help build a nuclear weapons-free future. It’s important to begin by getting educated about nuclear weapons and then spreading the word to friends and fellow students.

You could also organise an event or talk or raise the subject at meetings and then write to your local MP to request that they support a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

CND has a new petition- ‘Scrap Trident- Ban all nuclear weapons’ and then there’s ICAN’s new Million Pleas initiative, which aims to gather people from around the globe to call on leaders to retire nuclear weapons.