It is
clear education is going to play a prominent role in the election strategies of
the main parties over the next sixteen months, but sadly, with a privately educated
spokesperson for education at the helm for Labour, there may well be little to
distinguish between them. Hunt has already run the risk of losing the support of
teachers in the state sector by foolishly advocating the adoption both of
Performance Related Pay, and of a licensing system which suggests his opinion of
teachers is too Gove-like for comfort.
The message from the private sector, via
Seldon`s report for the Social Market Foundation, is that social mobility can
somehow be enhanced by "affluent parents at popular state schools" being charged
"fees of up to £20,000". They already pay taxes, don`t they, whilst the rich who send their children to private schools pay no VAT on the fees!
More money spent on schools, however, is an
obvious solution, but it has to go to all schools, with more pay for classroom
teachers urgently needed, and more graduates encouraged to join the profession
and teach in state schools. One thing is certain: that money has to be raised by
making the tax system fairer, with the well-off, the rich and the obscenely rich
being forced to pay more.
The private
sector has nothing to teach the state sector, as recent examination results have
proved. Of course, when state schools` results approach those of private
schools, the establishment, in the form of a Tory government, takes action, and
the rules for assessment get changed, as we saw last year.
State education, like
the NHS, has to be protected and supported, and it is the duty of a
future Labour government to do so.
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