Schools and exclusions

What did the government expect to happen? If the education system is deprived of funds, if teachers have their workload increased year after year whilst pay is frozen and in real terms reduced, and if the teacher recruitment problem is so great, foreign countries have to be trawled for their educators, the "growing crisis in our education system" is bound to result in more exclusions and suspensions. Add into the mix, years of needless austerity policies cutting benefits in the homes and jobs in the support services, and schools in the more deprived areas are bound to suffer from an increase in violence. How many times did the teaching unions explain to the likes of Gove and Morgan that underfunding allied to the huge numbers of unqualified teachers working in our schools was asking for trouble?

 As the Star editorial rightly states, the common denominator in all this is child poverty, with the simple fact being that a "child`s progress at school cannot be isolated from factors outside it". Oh for a Department of Education which would admit this, and take action to remedy it! As Richard House`s recent letter stated, an inspection service that is not "punitive, bullying and compliance-demanding" is essential, displaying empathy with the teaching staff and pupils, and not judging the schools simply on results. Probably some schools have resorted to exclusions because of concerns about results being affected by the poor behaviour of a minority, but the public school equivalent makes no headlines: entering pupils for IGCSE and Pre-U examinations, run by Cambridge Assessment which is not affiliated to the regulator, the Joint Council for Qualifications, to improve their results when they have every advantage already, is deplorable. 

 Never has a general election been needed so urgently! Never has a Labour manifesto needed to include so many pledges on education!