action
Reflex Science (DES) to importance of the tion Authority (ILEA) and the Department of Education and have full inspee- tion of the school. The press has stirred up hatred for anti-racist teaching and the Teacher who or- ganised the as- sembly has suf- Fered extreme charter for education The Education Charter', produced by the Socialist Teachers Alliance, provides a detailed framework for an al. wants to develop a discussion in par- ticular with Black Sections, who have al- ready produced their Black Agenda' The charter outlines a comprehensive response to the current onslaught on schooling and deals with issues such as the aims and defence of education and teachers' work is being changed sys- tematically by the Tories, it is essential to have a plan that develops alternative policies while defending good existing ternative policy on education. The STA the curriculum. Since every aspect of
he adopted by trade union branches and trades It can he a real tool for campaigning to emi- alterative agenda we shall need a sustained campaign to have these proposals adopted hy This would open up a debate ou the issues and minister Jack Straw's bollow words about The Tory attacks would have been hunted were it not for the failure of the national Lahour develoned in education and to articulate an al- Lemative programme. The most we have heard That is why it is vital that the left pur forward an altenative: the charter can lay thie basis for For further details and copies of the charter contact: Martin Allen, STA Convenor, 29 SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 11 December 1988/January 1989 phasise the new powers of governing bodies. They too shoald be urged to adopt the charter. Activists who are delegated to be governors by their ward should raise this. In order to set a real an many labour movement bodies as possible. hegin to offer an alternative education policy within the Lahour Party, going beyond shadow Party to defend what has already been from Jack Straw is that he, Like Baker, is in Ervour of national testing and 'excellence" Eleanor Schooling and Ronnie Held Tories want schools to promote a (white) 'national identity" Greenhill Puk, London NW10. concentrate on activity based enquiry, It views the whole community, not just white in- pharises the importance of an interationalist curriculum, developing positive policies that It is in the organisation of schools that we are going to see some of the major effects of the Tory plans for education. In Wandsworth, the council has sircady expressed their intention to dismantle the unified education system in the borough. They would like to see grammar schools for middle class areas and secondary moder set-ups for the working class areas. system where children advance a year or more when they pass their tests. Soon we could have eleven year olds, still in their Find year of schooling because their reading was not good enough. The charter calls for spport for a single unified system of fully comprehensive schools, under local democratic control. It also asks for a commitment to resourcing, in order to increase educational opportunities available cluding those in education. The charter should dustrialists as a resource. The charler em- They are also in favour of an American type Education must not be seen as the sole con- cem of teachers, but of many other workers, in- challenge racism, sexism and heterosexism. to working-class students. existence in many 9 inton/ H fundamental part practice already in dary schools that based on good another "national identity'. The needs and demands of charter has a clear position on the defence of positive action, a broad curriculum, unstreamed riculum and parental choice were the only ways were proposals aimed at breaking the hold of tion in delence of the real concerns of working teaching, opting out and cuts in spending and services. We have already seen how the media hury Quadrant, where holding an assembly to "Standards and excellence" have heen watchwords of right wing ideologues who have sought to make them solely their concem. In the mid 1970's, Rhodes Boyson, then headteacher of an ILEA school, wrole that a national cur- of making schools more accountable. These Ray Honeyford, ex-headteacher of a Brad ford school, backed by right-wing theorists likc Roger Scruton, have gone further. They started ethnic education has prevented schools from being able to transmit "national values' and The Tory attacks, abelled by the mass media, on Brent, Dewsbury, Bradford and Harringey have had the goal of re writing the political agenda for education. Schools are to promote a black people are no longer to play a part. One of the newly inserted aims of history teaching is to devclop a 'shared sense of British The most favourable context for developing support for socialist cducational policies is ac- class parents, school students and teachers. The has been used to attack anti-racist and anti- nexist practice in schools like Islington's High- celebrate Nelson Mandela's birthday has be- come and excuse for the Inner London Educa to clahorate the idea that anti-racists and multi- Labour controlled education authorities. 'Englishness". Page 16
and deal with the economic crinis. Wages, which once accounted for 42 per cent of Cross National product have been cut back to only 27 percent, and there has been an enormous con- centration and centralisation of capi LATIN AMERICA Mexico in turmoil The crisis of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) As the political and economic crisis unfolds in