New Labour's destructive education strategy, in particular its Academy schools programme, is uniting parents and teachers in a fightback.
On November London's Institute of Education local campaigning groups from around the counuy are to meel under lne umbrella of the AntiAcademies Alliance for a Conference Against Academies and Trust Schools.
The Alliance is the product of mounting anger at the way the ethos of the market place is degrading the education system.
Despite being Blair's number one priority, education has been a profoundly demoralising experience for children, parents and teachers under New Labour.
A 2005 poll showed that just 29% thought schools had improved since 1997 and 30% thought that education standards had worsened. Two thirds said the state school system was skewed in favour of better-off families. The mood is unlikely to be any more positive now
Comprehensive education used to mean. in ideal terms. the provision of a universal quality of free education for all, irrespective of class, race
social background. Of course this was never the reality. Even 1n its heyday between the late 60s and early
selective private schools creamed off the elite.
Since the late 1980s first the Tories and now Labour have sought dismantle the system and degrade its ethos. The latest Education Bill is likely to sound the final death knell. The original Tory architect of these reforms, tormer education secretarv Kenneth Baker, welcomed Blair's flagship Academy proposals saying they were the same ones he introduced in 1988. (He could have added that the entire labour movement then opposed them.)
Consistent features of this two decade onslaught have been attempts to introduce selecuon lol secondary senool admission and decouple school management from any democratic community control achueved through local authorities and elected school governors).
A further theme has been the testing of children from a young age, LUC inspection of schools and a constant emphasis on discipline - populist measures designed to meet concern over educational and behavioural standards in school.
New Labour leapt on to the Tory reforms in its drive to win middle class support in the key marginal constituencies. Dismantling democratic accountability was essential because Tne overwhelming majority of teachers and parents have always opposed selection.
The plethora of regimes for inspecting schools and testing young children Nave tWO functions. Firstly, alongside the criminalisation of young people and ideological attacks on "dysfunctional" families, they form part of a drive to instil discipline into the young workers of the future.
In the post-war period young people expectea to leave school and walk straight into long term jobs with security for their old age. Today's alienated generation have to be bullied to accept the discipline demanded by modern capitalism - hard work in bad conditions for low wages in insecure 10bs
Labour's championing of neo-liberal capitalism, by exacerbating social divisions, has blocked educational success for the majority of working class young people.
To avoid the obvious conclusion that yawning class division and inequality need to be tackled, other explanations have to be found - bad teachers, failing schools, "feral" youth and poor parEven before the roll out of Blair's Academy schools programme, the decline in comprehensive education is already a fact. Fewer schools have a genuinely mixed intake that reflects society. enting. The inspections and testing regimes function to churn out continuous stream of "culprits"
Gordon Brown's recent speech promising to tackle the prospect of a "wasted generation of boys" with more sport and community service and calls for more personal and parental responsibility -was typical of this approach.
To be fair, in Labour's first term there were some limited improvements. But, these have levelled off and it could be argued that Labour's massive drive in this area largely benefited those children who were likely to do well anyway.
All this has had a devastating impact on schools, which are now tossed in the waves of an educational market place. League tables, "parental choice" and "competition" between schools have caused massive instability.
Pupil turnover tends to go up as a large proportion of pupils in a given year move on The introduction of top-up fees has seen a significant drop in student numbers. Thousands turned up for the NUS called demonstration on October 29 - but a Sunday stroll round the streets of London won't overturn this governments entrenched neo-liberal ideas for higher education. before the end of their natural
This has a negative impact on teaching and on the pupils who stay - education and valuable socialisation both suffer. Teacher recruitment also goes into crisis as staff turnover soars as well.
The majority of families have no "choice" - being unable to afford exponential rents and house prices in the areas with good schools.
Meanwhile "white flight" and the migration of middle class families to outer suburbs and commuter belt towns have helped to generate a species of social and racial apartheid many urban arcas.
A 2005 report by the Sutton Trust found that the most successful state schools are being colonised by the middle class, They are educating significantly fewer poor pupils than other schools and excluding less affluent children who live nearby.
The drive towards more faith schools accelerates these dynamics - encouraging division in terms of race, religion and class, removing schools from accountable local control and increasing selection. find two schools serving essentially the same area in which one is predominantly non-white and overwhelmingly working class, while the OLICI is overwhelmingly white with a substantial middle class intake.
Even before the rolling out of Blair's Academy schools programme, the decline in comprehensive education is already a fact. A decreasing number or schools nave a genunev mixed intake that reflects society.
The tendency to deflect blame for poor outcomes ignores the increasing difficulties many parents have in finding the time and resources they need for their chllaren
Housing shortages and overcrowding often mean that children don't have a room to themselves or somewhere quiet to work. Many children arrive at school very tired because inevitably they never
FIGHT get an early night.
A report by the National Centre for Social Research published in September found that millions of parents now work hours that contlict with the time when their children are at home. Eight out of 10 fathers and over half of working molners work unsocial hours. Just 17 % of working parents work 9 to 5.
Similarly, the recent report claiming that British youth are une worst behaved in Europe identified the fact they spent less time with their parents as a key cause.
Il is naraly a comcidence that in the European country with the longest working hours, children should find growing up such a difficult expennence
Schools are fragile organic reflections of the communities they serve. With stability and deep long-term roots they will flourish, in turn feeding back into and strengthening the community.
The opposite is also true. The "failure" of many of these schools is too often a self-fulfilling prophecy. Marketbased private sector notions of supply and demand continually fuel the contraction and expansion of schools. An absurd basis for education strategy.
Developing a left alternative has to centre on a defence of democratically accountable universal comprehensive educanon, slasning Class sizes lo under 20 and the provision of universal free childcare from the age of six months. • For more information on the Anti-Academies Alliance contact A-AA c/o Bill Anderson, Park Hill Primary
Alcester Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 «KK.
page 5 of the scan
November 4 saw sioning of the Stern report,