UK
Demands for Education Under Labour – Socialist Education Association
Ian Duckett, Socialist Education Association (SEA), writes on the SEA’s demands for education under Labour.
The Socialist Education Association (SEA) believes that education is a universal right not a privilege and that all educational institutions should share knowledge and skills. They should also assist in enlightening and interacting with their local communities. These communities are best served by inclusive democratic structures which enhance accountability to students, parents and carers, staff and trade unions.
These socialist principles should apply to all sectors of the service from early years through to primary and secondary schools, FE colleges, universities and youth services.
The SEA’s Manifesto for Education covers a series of actions on curriculum, assessment, structures, funding mechanisms, teacher education and accountability.
This week in its Education Politics blog, SEA general secretary, James Whiting launched what might be viewed as demands on Starmer for education under a Labour government in the form of the SEA’s election statement. For details see Education Politics: Time For Change in Education. Vote Labour.
SEA Election Statement
The Tories have caused a major crisis in state education through underfunding, marketisation and central ideological control. Child poverty is reaching record levels. Absence rates among pupils are increasing, the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and others is widening, and teachers are leaving in droves. Provision for children with special needs and disabilities (SEND) is being cut back, leaving the most vulnerable bereft. School buildings are crumbling. Early years provision is in crisis too through underfunding and privatisation. Apprenticeship schemes are inadequate and post-16 vocational students are forced to follow untried T-level courses, whilst successful qualifications are being defunded. There is a blatant attempt by the Tories to make courses in the arts and humanities unviable in universities which cater for a more working-class intake. Universities are under threat from the current funding regime based on tuition fees and restrictions on recruiting international students.
The Tories have created their own ‘blob’ made up of academy chiefs, OFSTED and a few chosen academics to run the system. They ignore and actively deride the voices and experiences of the profession through their professional and subject associations and their education unions. Most academics, parents, governors and, of course students, are similarly marginalised. Instead they have built a rigged market around unaccountable and wasteful academies.
In order to stop this mismanaged Tory project in its tracks and start to build a fairer and democratically accountable education service, we urge everyone in education to vote Labour.
We welcome Labour’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and commitments to:
- tax private school fees to free up resources for the state sector
- recruit more teachers- we hope the 6500 figure is in addition to the massive shortfall in recruitment caused by the Tories
- improve mental health services in schools, make quality careers advice available to all pupils and provide breakfast clubs for all.
- review curriculum and assessment giving a higher priority to oracy and creative subjects.
- reform the apprenticeships programme
Labour should recognise the depth of the crisis in the service and go further.
We urge Labour to:
- provide healthy free meals for all starting with primary pupils as Labour Wales and London plus Scotland have done, as part of a child poverty strategy
- tackle the funding crisis by committing to spend, over time, the same proportion of GDP (5.4%) on education as the last Labour government
- bring back an integrated, local authority run, early intervention programme similar to Sure Start
- end academisation and bring academies back under local authority oversight
- develop an in-depth response to the teacher recruitment and retention crisis, by restoring pay levels, removing unnecessary testing of pupils which check on schools and teachers, replacing OFSTED with a peer review process, instigating national pay and conditions for education workers and giving the teaching profession back its autonomy
- give parents, students and local communities a voice in the running of schools
- conduct a root and branch review of SEND and alternative provision with inclusion as its aim.
- commit to a new qualification framework along the lines of Tomlinson which treats academic and vocational elements equally
- tackle the higher education funding crisis by moving away from tuition fees and towards a grant-based system
For details see the full SEA Manifesto for Education.
SEA and NEU
The SEA also supports the principles outlined by Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, when commenting on the Prime Minister’s confirmation of a general election on 4 July, said:
“Education must be a priority for any political party wanting to form the next Government.
“Fourteen years of neglect and underfunding have left education – from early years through to post-16 – in tatters. It is imperative that all political parties address this in their manifestos. Not in vague terms, with piecemeal solutions. But with meaningful proposals about how this situation will be reversed if they form the next Government.
“Our schools are chronically underfunded. Primary class sizes are the highest in Europe, and secondary class sizes are the highest since records began more than forty years ago. Teachers are underpaid and overworked, resulting in the worst recruitment and retention crisis in a generation. That will not be reversed unless there is significant change to pay and terms and conditions of the education workforce.
“SEND provision and mental health support for our young people is practically non-existent. We have a curriculum and assessment system that does not engage many pupils, or give each of them the chance to thrive. Many of our school buildings are in a chronic state of disrepair, literally crumbling away”
You can read the full speech here.
No comments:
Post a Comment