Tuesday, 6 May 2014

Teachers and pupils deserve better!

After four years of unlimited Goveism, it`s clear teachers and pupils deserve a better deal, something sadly which is far from guaranteed after the next election when a new government is formed. Early on in the coalition, Gove succeeded in achieving what teachers had failed to do over decades of trying, uniting the teacher unions, and bringing about joint industrial action. Simultaneously, he had not only insulted the most recent recipients of top grades at GCSE and A-level, but all those thousands and thousands who had worked hard and gained excellent results in these examinations over the years. Without a scrap of empirical evidence, and based entirely on ideological belief that only privately educated could achieve real academic success, Gove initiated a wholesale reform of school assessment. Refusing to take advice from subject experts and experienced examiners, he set about the dismantling of all aspects of examinations which had made them forces for social mobility; out went coursework, modular assessment, re-sits, AS levels and all things attempting to make the playing-field more level. Criterion referencing will be in the firing line soon. Back to the 1950s, accompanied by the longer-term goal, the return of a two-tiered system, and all with the backing of a blinkered and duplicitous LibDem leader.
    Without consultation with the union leaders,Gove attacked teachers` conditions of service, freezing pay, increasing pension contributions, lengthening service until the age of 68, and all the time refusing to acknowledge the hard work, commitment and dedication of the profession. Ofsted, often seen as Gove`s puppet, went on the offensive too, with the judgement of a school as "satisfactory" anything but, and schools being put on "special measures" if pupils were not making above average progress. Not for the first time, Gove showed no understanding of the term "average"!
     Re-organisation of a system introduced by a socialist education secretary was the inevitable accompaniment of all these changes,enforcing academisation on approximately half the state schools, allowing them to be run not by the elected LEAs, but by academy chains, often with dubious education motives, but less ambiguous monetary ones. Then came free schools, given millions of taxpayers` money by Gove, to be set up, often taking resources away from areas badly in need of government funding; a recent example, Harris Westminster Sixth Form with 500 students, has had £45m spent on it, despite similar colleges having to cut courses because of budget cuts in excess of £100m.
    With coalition government policies so antagonistic to teachers and state education, one would expect a more sympathetic attitude from the Opposition. No chance! Feeble responses to Gove`s reforms early on led to Miliband making what will surely be seen as on of his worst appointments, Tristram Hunt as shadow education secretary. Able to match Gove at the despatch box perhaps, but only by attempting to out-Gove him, rather than argue against Goveism. Hunt has successfully made a viable case against unqualified teachers, but other policies have been little less than disastrous.
     Privately educated, and apparently forging opinions on state schools by listening to government propaganda and watching television programmes focussing on bad behaviour from challenging pupils, Hunt has made no effort to regain teachers` support for his party. Seen crossing a picket line of outsourced and underpaid university workers, he has spoken in favour of Performance Related Pay for teachers, free schools, and renewing teachers` licences every five years or so. It has become difficult to see where in his proposals Goveism ends; indeed, his criticism of state schools not teaching "character and resilience" like the private schools he knows so well and loves so dearly, not only reveals ignorance of pupils in the private sector, but also a complete lack of empathy with their problems. And this is the man, the secretary of state-in-waiting, who aspires to take charge of state schools!
    His end-of-term report indicates clearly a need to do much better; much more time needs to be spent in state schools with the teachers and pupils; meetings with teacher union leaders are essential; all media appearances and written articles must include not only an acknowledgement  that there has been huge improvement made in state education, but also that it has been brought about by teacher effort and commitment.
  There is plenty of opportunity to be radical too. If a school in an academy chain is deemed to be failing, it doesn`t need a different sponsor but a return to its LEA. Admit that Teach First is not the best way for graduates to start their teaching career, and that Ofsted should be inspecting all private schools. What will Hunt`s response to the recent government proposal, a bribe of £40k pa to maths and physics PhDs to become teachers, or as they are to be called, "maths and physics chairs"? Why is there an assumption that the more knowledge the teacher has, the better the teaching will be, as if subject expertise is the only requirement? Isn`t it yet another insult to the majority of young teachers, struggling to make ends meet? Also, when asked about the school destination of his children, Hunt needs a better response than "Never rule out what takes place"!
   In fact, much is needed to be done if equality of opportunity and social mobility, once keystones of Labour`s thinking, are to be restored to their positions of priority. What is blatantly clear is that teachers and pupils deserve better than the fayre currently being offered!

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