Politics is education’s worst enemy

With the exception of 2 days for the annual celebrations of GCSE and “A”-Level results, media and political comment on education is constant and uniformly negative. “What is going wrong with xxx?” “What dreadful teachers!” “Labour’s way is wrong”. etc etc Even Labour spin is more about how its approach is marginally less bad than that of the Tories than visionary.

True, government initiatives over the last few years will surely damage the sector:

·         Reduction of funds for SureStart and nursery schools, so crucial as foundations for social mobility;

·         Fragmentation of school models, abandoning the comprehensive principle and universality;

·         De-valuation and de-professionalisation of teaching;

·         Loss of local strategic input, oversight and accountability;

·         Giving away of public assets such as playing fields;

·         Constant messing about with curriculum;

·         Focus on snap-shot monitoring instead of proper assessment of pupil progress;

·         Cuts and geographic variations in funding, resulting in patchy results for children;

·         Lack of proven improvement process for schools in difficulties;

·         Debt burden for students;

·         Neglect of FE sector; and more

Yet students are generally reckoned to be happy and able to achieve what they want from school and college, despite this apparent chaos. The unhappiness seems to lie with teachers, whose profession is so under attack; and with the inexpert but opinionated commentariat. Whose satisfaction should be paramount?

Labour must surely move on from its tentative critique of whatever the government proposes onto the high ground of its own vision, in education as in other fields. National standards; universal excellence in a common model; letting teachers take the lead; encouraging enquiry over information; investing in capacity to meet community economic and demographic needs; removal of divisive faith and private schools from State support; and enabling best practice to be identified, validated and shared, instead of being hidden away to protect competitive advantage. A strategic approach instead of a political, tactical one. A true alternative to the doctrinaire privatisation of the current government. And when it succeeds, education will be in the headlines only for those celebrations, without the negativity in between.