Tagged with Schools policy

Tristram and Schools – What can we expect in government?

Tristram things can only get betterThe People’s Parliament organised by John McDonnell MP recently held a meeting on education under the title Re-thinking schooling: class & education. The panel of speakers included Christine Blower, the General Secretary of the NUT and Diane Reay, a Cambridge university sociologist specialising in questions of class. The contributions were excellent and were followed by an hour long discussion with questions and points coming from the audience. You can find a report of the meeting and audio files of the main contributions on the website of the Socialist Educational Association (SEA).

Frustration with Labour’s policies on education and a lack confidence in Tristram Hunt were both evident in the contributions of virtually everyone (panel and audience) who spoke about them. It was mentioned more than once that the only party with educational policies anywhere near matching what most campaigners for inclusive and comprehensive state education want is the Green Party. Some members of the audience even said that they had left the Labour Party because of its abandonment of progressive educational ideas and policies along with its embrace of neo-liberal marketising concepts. Continue reading →

When will Labour critique and respond to Gove’s revolution?

Michael GoveIt is the age of the “gold standard”. The Labour party has circulated eight consultation documents which set out draft policy proposals for the 2015 manifesto. Education is dealt with in “Education and Children” and to a lesser extent in “Work and Business”. Apparently  they should be read in conjunction with the recently-issued “One Nation Society” and “One Nation Economy” documents (I commented on the former here).

Let’s start with the good news. There are commitments to extending early years provision. Labour would expand free child-care for working parents of 3-4 year-olds from 15 to 25 hours per week. It would also commit to providing “wrap-around” school-based child-care from 8 am to 6 pm. Continue reading →

Preparing for Labour’s conference: schools policy

Labour’s national policy forum (NPF) report 2013 for this year’s party conference is now available for all to read. Education is dealt with in the section devoted to the annual report of the Education and Child Care Commission on pages 70 to 76 and in a policy paper on childcare on pages 78 to 80. The discussion of schools and 16-19 training and education is found in the annual report and it is that section which is considered below.

The policy substance in this Report of just over 3000 words is slender. It can be summarised as follows:

  1. Labour’s approach to schools is based on “three key themes: Freedom, Devolution and Collaboration”
  2. Labour would give all (state supported) schools the same freedoms such as freedom over the curriculum
  3. Where freedoms are damaging they will be removed Continue reading →

A new direction for education under Labour?

school pupilsThe transformation of the English education system by Michael Gove has been one of the most far-reaching of the the changes made by the Coalition government. The majority of secondary schools have been removed from the framework of local democracy. Many have been absorbed into academy chains some of which have more schools than some local authorities ever had. They also exert a higher degree of control than while at the same time having no democratic mandate and operating outside of local democracy.

While Gove has rampaged through the education system, Labour has criticised details but has been without a substantial alternative. There have been valid criticisms of (1) control of schools from Whitehall, (2) the over-prescriptive national curriculum, (3) founding free schools where extra places are not required, (4) bullying schools into becoming academies (4) the abolition of the education maintenance allowance (5) the breaking of teachers’ national pay and conditions (though this is said sotto voce), (6) the use of unqualified staff, (7) the reversion to written exams only assessment; (8) admissions procedures that reinforce inequality. Continue reading →