Daily roundup 7 April: Youth votes, union merger, and school attendance

Young people should be forced to vote in their first general election, the Institute for Public Policy Research has said. According to BBC News, the centre-left think tank believes the decline in election turnouts would be halted and it could “kick start the habit of a lifetime”.


Two teachers unions have begun talks over merging and creating a “superunion”, the Independent reports. Both the National Union of Teachers, which has 330,000 members, and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, which has 170,000 members, believe a merger could give the profession a stronger voice. If the unions do combine, they will become the fourth largest union in the UK.


Sick children are turning up to school because their parents cannot afford to take the time off, teachers have claimed. Additionally, teachers are also seeing children that are hungry, tired and wearing inappropriate clothing because family finances are still being squeezed, ITV News reports. The findings come from NASUWT, which has warned children and young people’s lives are being “blighted and degraded by poverty and homelessness”.


New government guidelines for schools to combat terrorism are forcing teachers to act as “front-line storm troopers”, a teachers’ union conference has heard. According to the Independent, delegates at the National Union of Teachers’ annual conference backed a motion, which warned classroom discussion around the radicalisation of young people was being “closed down”. Alex Kenny, a union executive member, warned the guidelines “will damage and prohibit debate in schools”.


Teachers have backed calls for a ballot on strike action over funding cuts, the Daily Mail reports. The support came at the National Union of Teachers annual conference, which warned that funding cuts will lead to job losses, damage student education and impact on teachers’ pay, pensions and work loads. The next government has been given a six-month deadline by the union to increase school funding for England and Wales.


A children’s charity is calling on all businesses to back the new-shared parental leave legislation. Barnardo’s believes the new legislation will not have the desired impact unless it is fully supported and encouraged. The charity also wants to reduce the stigma around fathers taking time off.


The soft drinks industry has been criticised by the Local Government Association (LGA) for fuelling the obesity crisis. ITV News reports that the LGA has now called on companies to reduce high levels of sugar in their products following research that found “healthy” fruit juices often contain more sugar than fizzy drinks. However, company bosses have criticised the research, claiming it did not study the kind of sugar being used closely enough.