Improving the education system
John Blake, teacher and editor of Labour Teachers
John Blake teaches history in a London comprehensive school, and
has an interest in education policy. He is a Labour party member and
one of two editors of Labour Teachers. He has also written for the
Times Educational Supplement, LabourList, Progress and Shifting
Grounds.
Twitter - @johndavidblake
There can be few scraps of political ground more bitterly fought over than the English
education system. It has been an obligation on Prime Ministers from James Callaghan
onwards to have a view on education and no government of any party would now be
elected without having at least something to say about improving outcomes from our
schools.
The current Education Secretary Michael Gove is amongst the most recognisable
members of the government, despite holding a brief that is a devolved responsibility
in three of the four nations of the United Kingdom. Gove’s decision-making in office
has led to a knitted pin-cushion of the Education Secretary proving wildly popular
among a certain sub-set of the teaching profession.
It now seems almost impossible to believe, but some time ago, those occupying the
higher echelons of power were (if not blessedly unconcerned about education) at
least mildly indifferent. Education was something local councils and schools did;
teachers (by which was meant their unions) held the whip-hand; and parents were the
grateful supplicants, and not the determined drivers of the education the state saw fit
to provide.
“The current, highly interventionist and diverse education system in
England is as much…a Labour creation than it is a Tory one”
In reflecting on the lessons of the past 30 years of Labour’s education offering, in
particular to those parts of the South where we have been all-but-wiped out, two
things should always be remembered: firstly, that the current, highly interventionist
and diverse education system in England is as much, if not more so, a Labour creation
than it is a Tory one; and both the system and Labour’s role in its creation are
inherently positive. This is not to suggest everything that has happened in education
over that time is to be unconditionally endorsed, and I will develop some thoughts
on the dead-ends that have been revealed, especially over the past three years.
revolutionise.it
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