By Editor,Greg Heffer

Copyright dailymail

Nigel Farage has predicted teachers will go on strike if Reform UK wins the next general election – as outlined a need to overhaul Britain’s ‘Marxist’ education system.

The Reform leader accused schools in the UK of ‘poisoning our kids’ and ‘telling them to be ashamed of their country’.

He said black children are being taught they are ‘victims’, while white children are told they are ‘oppressors’, in an attack on a ‘negative culture’ encouraged by teachers.

Mr Farage added it would take ‘years to turn this around’, but hailed signs of a ‘counter-culture revolution’ being spearheaded by Gen Z.

He made the remarks during an appearance at Hillsdale College in Michigan, US, last month, during which he paid tribute to the late conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

The Reform leader said there was a ‘massive job’ in both Britain and America to halt ‘progressivism’ in schools, which he suggested his party would undertake if it won power.

But his comments sparked anger from the National Education Union (NEU), which is Britain’s largest teaching union.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede branded Mr Farage’s comments as ‘nonsense’ and ‘grossly irresponsible’, while claiming a Reform government would be a ‘disaster’.

Mr Farage launched his furious attack on the UK’s education system during a question-and-answer session at the Hillsdale College event.

Asked what he would do about schools if he became prime minister, the Reform leader suggested he faced a challenge greater than two previous premiers.

‘The one thing [Winston] Churchill never faced and [Margaret] Thatcher never faced was the march through the institutions, particularly education, of the Marxist Left,’ he said.

‘They are now in control of our education system. I’m anticipating a teachers’ strike very quickly after winning the next general election.’

‘You’ve got it here too,’ he told the US audience. ‘They are poisoning our kids. They are telling them to be ashamed of their country.

‘They are telling little Johnny, who’s eight, who is black, that he is a victim and little Oliver, who is white, who is eight, that he is an oppressor.

‘They are dividing us, not uniting us. They are feeding this negative culture in. We have got a massive job to do with education – absolutely herculean.

‘And, by the way, we can’t do it in six months or a year; it will take us years, years to turn this around.’

But Mr Farage also said a ‘counter-culture revolution going on in these institutions and throughout young people’ was ‘really encouraging’.

‘It may well be that people like me that have been around for decades, fighting the conservative case against progressivism, we may well have been the rearguard stopping the advance,’ he added.

‘But the way we go forward and win is by young people coming with us.

‘And despite what’s going on, there is much to be encouraged by the new Gen Z almost-revolution that’s going on, compared to our millennials – most of whom are beyond hope.

‘All I want education to do is teach critical thinking – to treat young people with respect to say ‘here are two decent points of view and you make up your own minds’.

‘As opposed to what’s happening now and, in too many cases, saying one is virtuous and one is evil. It’s a massive job in both Britain and America.’

In response to Mr Farage’s comments, Mr Kebede said the idea the education system was controlled by Marxists was ‘nonsense’.

The NEU boss also pointed out any strikes have to be on the grounds of terms and conditions for teachers.

He questioned whether Reform would attack these immediately when entering government.

‘Farage has made his political career out of dog-whistle politics and now, like [Donald] Trump, he is lining up teachers and their unions for a fight,’ Mr Kebede told The Guardian.

‘I think that’s grossly irresponsible. I don’t – and nor does my union, and nor does the teaching profession – push critical race theory as he’s suggesting.

‘Should he become prime minister he would sell out our public services, including education… and he would be a disaster for education and children.’

Hillsdale College describes itself as ‘a small, Christian, classical liberal arts college’ that operates independently of government funding.