classroom Graeme Cookson
and students are up against the effects of the offensive: will Labour
this supplement the Tory plans, student loans, while Kenneth Baker's schools is still working through. The articles in look at apects of and discuss ways of fighting back. Pace 13 Queen's Speech Tory assault on education. The will contain proposals on onslaught on the Tories: make two major school system: the curriculum is tures of the economy, and of class Mrs Thatcher's Britain. In this wider servatism begin to disintegrate, in the Tories hope to draw some of these vatism, by giving them a stake in the existence of selection and (relative) claims for their programme. The first is that it is a modernisation of the ment of the student population in schools for which their parents had opted, and which bad, in tum. decided to select them. Tradibonal It's not simply a retum to models elements of older selective systems: the grammar school will survive. But overall it is new, and in its newness fairly homogenenus in their exclusion from wealth and their opposition to Con- education, as in society as a whole, groupings into the orbit of Conser- tem which would involve a large seg- of the past. It incorporates, of course, corresponds to other developing fea isn't the right word for this system. political relations, in groups ance pass the test? top. arena, and vocated in the 1970s, for instance, sion of cducation is necessary to meet as to maintain academic streams, and leges of technology. In each case, it is not targeted for special trement, for whom lower levels nf education and different conceptions of relevance are Selectiveness of this kind has a political, as well as an economic ra- tionale. Selection in the part benelited relatively small groups; the system that the right-wing Black Papers ad- comprised only five to eight per cent of the state school population. Con- servative policy now proposes several different types of selection, in a sys- manpower needs and purticular social It is this portion which the Con- servatives are now dismanding. They reject the idea that a universul expun- the needs they identify. They favour a much higher degree of targeting and selection: sclection within schools, so to develop technical ones, selection between schools, so as to build up centres of scholarly excellence or col- implicit that there are groups who are SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989 the the hamework and idenlogy of post- cconomic progress depended upon a Although the opportunities offered were for the most part seized by the ferentiated expansion of education - one which was not formally and deliberwely targeted on particular Any assessment of the weak- nesses in Tory education policy in England and Wales must begin with a recognition of the Tories political achieve- In ten years, with accelerating pace, they have demolished much of lem of political alliances which un- that underlay post-war reform held that more general provision of a higher- quality education, and upon equalis ing the opportunities available to stu- dents from different social classes. society, this understanding of the na- ture of reform had real effects. It sug cconomy" could be met by an undif war education, and broken up the sys less "disadvantaged" memhers gested that the needs of derpinned it The doctrine cousiderable ments.
leachers a depressing experience. But an active role for the teacher, who is meant to encourage the enquiries of the student and devise new schemes of work, based on the nationally set ing parties, govemment policy - on ment - works against such a role. It in thus guaranteed to produce negative responses - from a quiet with-holding But it is not only among teachers alienation. It makes the work of many it is also a problem for the govem- ment. lis curticulum reforms envisage "programmes of study'. Yet, outside pay, conditions and teacher involve- of commitment, to a possible resur the urgings of the curriculum work- gence of teacher militancy. greater accountability, In this way. They have increased parent repre- scatation on school govering bodics "Parental choice" of school has been widened, and schools - through the publication of annual reports and exam results - have been forced into Tories claim, the old system, based Icachers who believed that they knew Such, then, are the outlines of the system, and the political strengths they claim for it. But will the system work? Can it deliver the skilled, work-orientated students that industry, in certain numbers, re- town hall bureaucracy strengthened their SUPPLEMENT best, has been replaced being updated; the "needs of industry" several respects, the claim is a Tones were thought of as the stupid party in education: their policy was nostalgic, concered more to preserve have characterised as "loony' reforms: they have attacked programmes of race equality. But in other respects, they have been keen to embrace the are being more effectively served, In crediblc one. For many years, the the past than to restructure it The longer adequate. Certainly, the Tories have utilised an appeal to tradition' against what they that is one of the bases from which The Technical and Vocational description is no was nostalgic, thought of as preserve the Tories were their policy education: concerned "For many years, the the stupid party in more to
that problems will grow. Parents have been promised a greater say in the running of schools. The hope is that in taking on managerial respon sibilities, they will develop a sense of "self-help" and "making do". Fuced ganise a jumble sale, or sack # cleaner, rather than make a protest. From a Tory point of view, this is an goverment's underfunding of educa- tion runs the danger of creating a parents movement that is less inter- ested in 'choice" than in overall levels of resources. In the right circumstan- ces, particularly in the inner citics, it with shortages of cash, they will or- could be a ical force, quires? Can it command the loyalties of large numbers of parents, students and teachers? There are many reasons The National Curriculum may itself is an isolated example of purposeful activity in a landscape shaped by a tablishment quarters - the CBI, the plained about fundamental weak- The first is the continued under- resourcing of cducation, and the lack of planning to deal with key issues, he a model of careful planning, but it principle of neglect. Over the last year, a series of reports from es: School Inspectorate, Parliamentary Sclect Commitices Education Initiative', for instance, right. Roger Scruton may think of tion. Likewise, the working partics promoted a student-centred, activity- hased curriculum, proud of its tion to the academic and book-based that the government has set up to reportng in terms that reflect the progressive opinion of education professionals, rather than the Tory education as 'an extended war against The think-tanks of the right - the Centre For Policy Studies, for instance "relevance" and blazoning its opposi models of the grammar-school tradi- devise a National Curriculum relevance': not so, the DES. The description restructure it. past than to Is no longer adequate"
national curriculum working parties sive ponciples the proposals of the emhody values and cultures remote Finally, there are the students who will experience the new education and all the testing that goes with it. Tory policy has put a stop to most develop an cducation relevant to the needs of working class and black stu- nouum claims to deliver an educa- tion which will be relevant to all, whatever their race, gender, or background'. This is a dubious claim. Although they apply some progres from the experience of many stu- radical experiment. dents. Instead, the acute problems of teacher Nursery edocation is inadequate, with serious effects on students' later performance. Post 16 education is a mess: Too few students stay on in education Training schemes - such as YTS - develop 'skills' at too low a level for industrial peed. Spending on all sectors of education is insufficient, most notably in the case of teachers' pay, whose inadequacies have given There is a second difficulty that arises from the way change is being programme is one of top-down refom. It doesn't rest upon the invol- nesses in the systent. into functionaries of refom. In this Last respect, the government has been Many of those at the higher levels of education - teacher trainers, local authority advisors and so on - who hold personal belies Tavourable to progressive education now see their of the National Curriculum. It docs - see this an a hetrayal. It is better seen as a comprunise, made from a position of strengthi, that is based both on a realisation of the poverty of the right's own ideas about teaching and Icaring, and on a desire to convert progressive potential critics of change Tole as working within the framework not, after all, seem to be the embodi- government's underfunding of education "The
dents. They are thus unlikely to solve ment. Testing students at 7, 11, 14 and 16 - producing in may a strong sense of failure - is also unlikely to increase the commitment of students There are several rcasons, then. for doubting whether Tory policy is capable of carrying out its project of cesses. Most significant has been a general shift to the right in the terms of cducational debate and policy- historic problems of under-achieve- though, achieved some notable suc- SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18. October 1989 night-wing modemisation. from oppressed groups. Allen's article shows, it wants to see a. in tie implementation of change, hut pressures on teachers, now that the moment of militancy has, for the time being passed, is a strong sense of posite: it aims to direct a transforma- teaching force that is more closely managed. less unionised, harder- working, cheaper. Such changes are paralleled by a loss of educational in- itiative: teachers will play a great par The overall effect of these new vement of teachers. Quite the op virtually none in its original devising. tion of the workforce. ment of reaction, and it is possible for ment, to limit the influcnce of the right. There is a price, though, for this #tralegy. The Tories have set clear rules for joining their game; cur- implemented from the top, with none of that scope for egalitarian impulses The second claim the Tories make - and again, this is one which has some popular appeal - is that they democratic. and more accountable. professionals, through their involv- riculum reform will from now on be that marked earlier periods of change. the system have made movement that 'choice' than interested in resources" creating a danger of in overall levels of parents' runs the Page 14 is less
SUPPLEMENT rights, for instance, Modified ver making. Many of the prioritics and much of the language of the Conser- vative programme now find an echo in the Labour Party: the stress on "standards, choice, and consumer sions of the Tories' central projects -