Labour's classless policies FEATURES Good Education For All ?
This aim is the for schools Education is a vote-loser
with moral values, or other aspects of society's functioning. There is no notion that cial profitability and even the modest aim of a al experiences distinctively dillerent frons what exists (thal, for exumple, it may catail a radical rappraisal of 'school knowledge' and Lions). Nowhere is there any suggestion even of a critical approach, let alone one that 1s based on distinctively socialist, feminist and I is as though the positive experiences. ing. of the 1980s had never taken place. The document, in the soction headed Multi-racial dominant theme of Labour's education proposals tive Is illustrated headed The of tire Far socialist millenium, it is the future defined in terms of the worklone in moct the challenge of the Is no mention of any of the great issues that move young people today, the environment, disarmament, poverty in the underdeveloped counines, horan rights, issues of gender and race, empowering the powerleas. The notion of edncation as emancipatory and liberating is almost entirely absent from GEFA. There are refcrences to the function of education in 'the establishment of moral values", and to the sim of heing able to "participale fully in a more democratic sociely, but this is very much a subordinate There is no suggestion anywhere in GEFA that the economic imperative might be in con- tradiction with the quality of people's lives, or there might be even a degree of tension be- twoen the demands of industrial and commer- fairer society, let alone that social justice may require pupils to be offered a set of education- of relationships with leachers and institue- particularly of antiracist and antisexist teach SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 23, April 1990 GEFA: The way are govered by the есовопіс ітрего- clearly in the sec- Single Market. from being long awaited millenium. challenge There changer that tion and token theme in GEFA. ecological principles. This hare conception is entirely absent theme of Good education for all? (GEFA), the ment adopted at the 1989 LP conforence, is precisely that education for social justice and education for capitalist cconomic development This recalls the rhetoric of the heyday of nological revolution'. Twenty-five years later, Wilson's vision has been superceded by the challenge of 1992, but the guiding principle Benn during the Labour Party NEC debate on the Policy Review, the market economy was the syatem we lived in, and we had to 'make it cessfully in the world market place'. (Cam- quivocal success for the left. A bedrock of support for comprehensive education, liberal teaching methods and adequate funding provides the buris for resistance to Tory at- tacks. But it is not enough even to mark out the starting point for a socialist politics of education. This must begin from the under- standing that the working class has an interest in cducation which is fundamentally incom- from the Labour Paity's altemative to Tory education policy. On the contrary, the central education section of the Policy Review docu- Labour's educational reformism in the 1960s, when the pools of wasted ability had to be channeled into the white heat of the tech- As Neil Kinnock put it, replying to Tony work more efficiently, more fairly, more suc- paign Group News, May 1989) Are they only being educated for the market? patible with that of capital. go hand in hand. cause there aren't enough teachers, all offer al evidence, again contrary to the popular tween public regard for teachers - among the most highly respected groups in society, third only to doctors and the police - and public perception of the govemment's regard for For the Torics, who have invested so much political capital in radical education reform, plementation of the 1988 Act in the couple of tangible confirmation of the general idea that this is a disaster which will not be tumed around by the turbulent experiences of the im- However it does not represent any une- wide support for some of the key policies in survey of parents (Times Educational Supple- approved. Attainment targets for cach age The overriding reason, in spite of this, for policy lies in the real experiences that parents cducation is not safe in the Tories' hands, Colleges might provide for the few. (Addition- press, is in another survey published in the the 1988 Education Act. According to a recent ment 8,12.89), though only just over half had heard of the national curriculum, 9 out of 10 the lack of confidence in Tory education have had of education under Thatcher - above all, experiences of cuts. Crumbling schools, whatever the benefils that City Technology TES (5.5.89) which showed a huge gap be- shortages of books, children sent home be group were approved by 94 percent. teachers - bottom with 4 percent). ycars hefore the next election. (The Guardian 15-2-90) bealth. 43% said Labour What are these opinions mand xupport. For example, did pot express particular teaching the other hand, there was A recent opinion poll showed education to be policies", as against 27% in a recent survey parents methods, the curriculum and pupils* behaviour. On the second most impor- tant policy issue, after 'had the best education hased on? Some of the myths popularised by the Tory press did not com- ahout for the Tories. for the Tories. Pace 28 concem
FEATURES The Tories have rudi- trolled, by a combination of power to govemment parents, at the expense of how school education is con and devolution of certain powers to govemors and How does the centralisation with the minister.* cally reshaped LEAs. of tive, based upon class, sex and rce, prevent The only mcarure proposed on gender in equal access to educational opportunity". But the schools is a broad and balanced national curriculum which will provide 'squal learning upportunities for both boys and girls'. On face, the document says schools must he sen- sitive to ethnic minorty colnual needs and aspirations, with the implication that this will education*, acknowledges that "discrimina lie sufficient to reduce inequality of achievo- there are no sections on gender and class.
GEFA promises a propose to deal with this LEAs, largely restoring their previous role. The increased powers that have accrued to the DES GEFA speaks of Parents under the Tories will ap retained, many of them exercised through a new Council Ar school level, ment An effective challenge to inequality en- tails seeing class, gender and race in terms of vantage, it entaus a radical reappraisal of all The absence of the notion of education for emancipation and the explicit acceptance of the interests of capital as the yardstick of education policy places GEFA on the same tinguishes itself from Tory cducation policies Tories have to the needs of a modemising capitalism facing the challenge of social relationships, not indices of disad- aspects of schooling, and it entails substantial terrain as Tory cducation thinking. GEFA dis in claiming to provide better answers than the
simply says that "The Labour Party is com- Jarge increase in spending. For example, GEFA is notably cautious about money. It mitted to increased investment". Yet even the modest reforms it proposes will require a very GEFA says that more teachers are needed: classes are too big, teachers don't have cnough time to help individual pupils or liaise with parents, pay is too low. The result is un- Again, the document says that its aim is that all three and four year olds should have the right to nursery education'. These are vital aims, but no specific commitments are given Previous experience has repcatediy shown How Labour's promised reforms have been undermined by a failure to mako the money available to put them properly into practice, so laying the ground for a subsequent back- Discussion of a comprehensive alternative to Lahour's policy is currently under way in the Socialist Movement's Education Working Group, in which a number of members of the NUT'= Socialist Teachers' Alliance are In- The alterative will be finalised at a day- school on 22 September in Nottingham and resslution on education is also being drafted Page 29 then fed into the Socialist Movement itsell A Richard Hatcher in the document as to their rcalisation lash from which the Tories have benefitted. If you educate your kids right, they could grow up like he did! derachievement in the classroom'. for Labour Party Conference. lo parent govemors, and encourage LEAs to establish complaints procedures. GEFA is in the Tories' system of Local Management of curiously silear on what changes it may make This is hardly a radical vision of popular democratic involvement in education Under parents have two key roles. As 'consumers, they can exercise choice in the education market place and thus exert market pressures on the schools, Thrugh governing bodies they can directly influcace school pact of the education market, and we welcome that, but it does not replace it with a genuine extension of direct democratic procedures in and involvement by parents in their schools mented by measures that transform governing bodies under LMS into effective instruments There is a need to restore certain powers of sition and negotiation are institutionalived and Council with no popular roots but a powerful Labour's alternative may reduce the im- education. Rights of individual infonnation ure important, hut they need to be comple- planning and provision to Local Edication Authorities, hut they equally need in bo democratised, so that processes of consult- effective. At govemment level we need, not a consultative body representative of all the vanous interest-groups in education. of collective local democracy. in partnership. 'Parents are a cornerstone of a school's success and a pupil's progress'. Labour will give more rights of To parents, more suppon policy on certain matters: government-picked information and Schools (LMS). The key contribution that education can cated and trained workforce. That requires provision, lo the abolition of grammar make to the task of making British capitalism more competitive is providing a better edu- some egalitarian measures, in order to create a efficient meritocracy, reducing the obstacles which prevent some competing on equal ters by greater universality of It also means the renovation of 16-19 education and training, based on the model of the most successful capitalist economy in Europe, West Germany. And it means some limited measures to reduce inequality for working-class, black and female pupils and students. But because it is an egalitarianism that is hamessed to and delined by the inter- goals, it will actually have very little effect on incqualities which are the product of social An indication of the extent to which Labour shares the Tory agenda was given by a joint press conference held in February by tion spokesperson Jack Straw on the issue of citizenship training. It might be thought thut thing distinctive to say. Yel, according to the •Mr Straw could be soon wielding a red Gregor telling the conference of the need to train pupils to become the good citizens of tomorrow. He needed to change what he had written because it was so closely in agreement provision: from an expansion of nursery ess of capital and not radically emancipatory relationships of oppression, rooted procisely Education Secretary: MacGregor and opposi- this is one issue on which Labour has some- pen over his speech as he listened to Mr. Mac- schools, to wider access to higher education. SOCIALIST OLTLOOK no 23, April 1990. in the dominance af those same interests. Guaran s героп:
for all 16-19 year olds because the majority of students drop out al this stage: Also funding for mature students on accesa couries is vital as is the All this plus a non-means tested grant with travel allowances instead of restructuring of the archaic A' Level Tory plans create another fine mess