Tories and disadvantaged pupils(2)

Star readers probably thought government ministers urging people to applaud the NHS staff after they`d spent ten years in cutting their pay and resources was the height of hypocrisy, but their "return to school" campaign is up there too! Teaching unions are, of course, right to complain about the lack of "stringent guidelines" for schools, when it has been provided for employers across the UK. The government clearly want the return of as many children to school as possible to free up their parents, and its sudden concern about the education of disadvantaged children is too much to swallow. Posing as the "champions of the disadvantaged", as the Star editorial states, simply "won`t wash" (Star, 16/05/20)!

          The ten years of underfunding education, and freezing the pay of teachers, leading to massive recruitment problems, especially in the poorer areas, allied with Gove`s unnecessary assessment reforms and the cuts leading to the closure of many Sure Start centres, created insurmountable obstacles for disadvantaged children. Where was the concern then?

     Similarly, the government`s refusal to force universities to change their admissions procedures, not even insisting on Gove`s recently reformed and highly regulated A-levels being the only academic qualification permitted, has ensured pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds rarely get places in our top universities. Much research, including some done by the MP David Lammy has shown how these universities are  crammed with pupils from the private sector, and from state schools in the more affluent areas. The chances of a pupil  eligible for free school meals getting into these universities are as remote as ever. How any education secretary can allow private schools to by-pass A-level s by taking Pre-U examinations where the percentage of A*/A grades in every subject is far higher, and then claim to be on the side of the disadvantaged pupils, beggars belief!

      Either Gavin Williamson has had a Damascene conversion, or yet another "political decision", with scant regard for people`s safety, is being made, with little scientific backing, and plenty of political whitewash!