New Labour's much trumpeted “Public Private Partnership” school privatisation programme in Northern Ireland is in serious trouble.

Despite being warned by educational professionals that PPP is not suitable for schools, the government pressed ahead.

A fundamental problem with PPP in education is that funding is based on the number of pupils attending the school. It has always been accepted that pupil numbers cannot be predicted more than three to five years ahead.

Unfortunately, the government has insisted that the pupil numbers are worked out over the life of a PPP contract - a 25 – 30 year period. This miscalculation has been exposed following the disastrous drop in pupil numbers at the flagship PPP school - Balmoral High School in West Belfast - which is heading for financial collapse. It seems that the penny may have finally dropped with the government and an undignified scramble has begun to find a way out of the PPP process in schools.

The government now faces the prospect of been sued by multi nationals who have already spent money preparing to run schools.

7,500 classroom assistants working in schools in Northern Ireland have been left hanging in mid air by the failure of talks between unions and employers over job evaluation.

The talks began following a very well supported one day strike by classroom assistants in June. The negotiations were proposed as a means of finding a quick resolution to the job evaluation dispute, but the end result of four months of talks has been no real progress.

Even more shocking for the workers has been the way the negotiations were carried out. When management made a "likely offer" in October, they did not even know how many workers would be affected, what the outcome of a deal would be for each worker or how much the deal would cost.

To achieve a positive result to this dispute classroom assistants will have to return to strike action. In June the vast majority of classroom assistants consulted had expressed the view that more than one day of action would be necessary to win. Unfortunately the main union involved, NIPSA, decided that only a one day strike would be called.

Classroom assistants feel let down by the unions but they have proven their ability to fight and they have shown that action can be very effective. Decisive strike action, alongside a public campaign aimed at highlighting the plight of these workers, is needed now.

Parents have been involved in a hard hitting campaign to protect the lives of children who attend Brooklands Primary School in Dundonald.

The campaign developed following the retirement of the local lollipop patrol and a decision by the South Eastern Education Board not to replace him.

Since the decision was taken, parents and school staff have held protests demanding his replacement and have established their own patrols to help children cross the road safely. The campaign has put the education board under huge pressure and there are signs that they may break in the near future.

Although only one of many cuts introduced across education in Northern Ireland, this cut is particularly worrying for parents everywhere in that the safety of children is directly affected.

In these circumstances there is no choice other than to follow the lead of the Brooklands’ parents and fight back.