Labour shouldn’t offer cosmetic solutions for our education system

Until told otherwise I am going to assume that all teachers have a deep and noble interest in the education of children and young people in Britain. There is, then, no need for them to put their hand on their heart or a bible or a framed photograph of Nicky Morgan and swear an oath to education. I mean how would that go exactly? “I solemnly swear that I absolutely have not fallen into teaching because it’s guaranteed work and I wasn’t sure what to do in that slightly terrifying, listless phase after I left uni/came back from travelling/got sick of working full time in my old Saturday job.”

Labour must articulate a clear and detailed plan for Britain’s education system and not get drawn into offering cosmetic solutions.

One of the first criticisms levelled at our education system by the Right is that comprehensive education has been a failure. That is demonstrably untrue. Comprehensive education has never been tried in this country. We should introduce comprehensive education across the board and abolish all other forms of secondary school.

For example, worship in schools is absolutely appropriate – should faith communities in the local area wish to make it available and the governing body and senior teachers agree. But there should be no specifically-defined faith schools in Britain. Selection on the basis of faith has meant that faith schools have an unfair advantage over secular schools as they are able to select on the basis of “faith”, which too often manifests itself as selection on the basis of ability.

Labour should also accept that the academies programme was a disastrous policy that has left most secondary and, increasingly, primary schools in the hands of unaccountable ‘sponsors’. Academies have meant that when the Conservatives introduced Free Schools they was a natural extension of a former Labour policy. This was simple expansion of the idea that somebody other than Local Authorities (L.A’s) and Education professionals were the best people to create and administer local schools. It has left Labour politically isolated with no counter argument. How can you rebut a policy that is just the next step on a road Labour started to go down in government?

Academies and Free Schools should be abolished and all schools should be taken back into Local Authority control. Local Education Authorities should be reinstated and be given the requisite budgets to manage and maintain local schools once again. This is the only way to provide education with the necessary level of democratic accountability. It would also ensure that Education Officers receive guidance and leadership from local elected officials and teachers so they can make the right decisions for the communities they work in and represent.

The way in which we assess of young people and schools should also change. No child should be tested by traditional written exam in Primary school. For the duration of Primary school the best way to assess pupils is in a one to one setting with a class teacher who the pupil trusts. One-to-one pupil/teacher assessments put the pupil at ease and ensure that the results of any such assessment give a true reflection of the pupil’s ability. OFSTED should be allowed to assess school performance but this should be far more structured and much less of the kind of no notice, state sanctioned witchhunting of teachers that it has become.

This is the kind of vision Labour must offer for the future of our Education system.