Transcript The context of the Education Act

Education for Tomorrow
What price State education?
“ Advanced egg-sucking
for grandmothers”
Our purpose...
to explore what is happening in education…
in the context of the general political situation...
in order to understand why it is happening…
so that we can determine a way forward.
Winning the war...
& post-war
reconstruction
The economy needed an
advanced, newly skilled working class
Workers demanded educational opportunity and
fundamental social change
Both sides were aware of the political
significance of a literate, skilled, educated
working class
A new Britain...
1944 and all that
 The 1944 Education Act
 GCT Giles, President of the NUT...
 A “reconstructed, unified, democratic system of education”
 “Can equality be achieved within the three school types?”
 The need to develop “a school of a new type” to “reconcile the claims of
vocationalism, citizenship and general culture”
 “(There are) those that argue that the experiment cannot flourish within a State
system. How little they know of the rich and varied history of State schools”
 Education, “a necessary condition of developing and broadening democracy”
 “The reactionary die-hard forces, which too often in the past have succeeded in
strangling educational & social progress, have not undergone a sudden and
miraculous change of heart.”
 “We will need all the strength, experience & leadership of our great Union and of a
united profession… and the active sympathy & co-operation of a public
opinion more enlightened and more determined than ever before to
sweep aside the obstruction of vested interest and privilege.”
11+ & the fight for
comprehensives
1960s & 70s
 agitation, research, campaigning &
struggle for comprehensive education
 Govt. Circular 10/65 instructed LEAs to begin
 1969 & 71 “The Black Papers” counterattack
 1970 Tory Govt (Education Sec Thatcher)
 1975 Labour Govt (Ed Sec Shirley Williams)
 Threats of legal action against non-compliance
 1976 PM Callaghan launches
“The Great Education Debate”
 1979 Tories elected with PM Thatcher
Thatcher arrives...
The Tories gave us…
 Defence of Grammar Schools
 Assisted Places scheme
subsidising private education
 Local Financial Management &
then LMS
 Funding famine
 Compulsory Competitive
Tendering
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“Opting Out”
City Technology Colleges
EAZs
SATs & League Tables
Punitive Ofsted Inspection
“Parental Choice”
Outsourcing of LEAS
Private Finance Initiative
..and then came Tony
CCT footage from the crime scene
“Education, education,education”
 “Essential challenges of modernisation…
…to create an economy fully attuned to a new
global market…
…to fashion a modern welfare state where the
role of government changes so it is not necessary
to provide all social provision...
…the process is irresistible and irreversible”
Speech to TUC 1997
They know the truth...
“We also fail our most disadvantaged
children and young people…
internationally, our rate of child poverty is
still high, as our the rates of worklessness
in one-parent families, the rate of teenage
pregnancy and the level of poor diet
amongst children. The links between poor
health, disadvantage and low education
outcomes are stark.”
‘The 5 year strategy for Children & Learners’
Some contradictions
Mass state education is the source of skill and
knowledge, which generate wealth
Globalisation demands privatisation, and the
surrender of the public sector to the world of
profit
Education for all demands increasing levels of
public spending but..
There are pressures - including domestic and EU
pressures - to reduce public spending
..which brought us
the Government’s 5 year strategy
‘Diversity & Choice’ attack on “bog standard comprehensives”
Extension of PFI - “Building Schools For The Future”
Specialist Schools
Extension of “Foundation Status” for schools
Further reduction in the role of LEAs and increase in outsourcing
City Academies - now “Academies” and “Skills Academies”
Workforce Remodelling - through “Social Partnership” divide & rule
Enforced school staff and pay restructuring & attacks on pensions
“Academic & vocational ‘pathways’ at 14”
Schools run by private companies, individuals, voluntary groups,
parents, faith groups
 Higher Education fees & increasing student debt
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…and now,
The Education Bill (Act) 2006
 Schools to be encouraged to opt out of LA as “Trust Schools” to
take increasing control the curriculum & teachers’ pay & conditions
 Businesses, faith groups, parents & universities to be allowed to set
up schools and help form clusters or federations of existing ones.
 ‘Popular’ schools to be allowed to expand & to take in more pupils.
 Private schools to be allowed to "opt in" to the state sector. Faith
schools, in particular, are expected to take advantage of this.
 Parents to be given a bigger say in the running of schools
 ‘Failing schools’ to be given a year to improve or face closure.
 Cut-price transport for families in poor neighbourhoods to give them
access to better-performing schools in wealthier suburbs.
Globalisation & education
‘external’ pressures
Andy Green, reader in Education at
University of London Institute of Education.
“As the national state becomes a marginal force in
the new world order, so education becomes an
individualised consumer good delivered in a global
market and accessed through satellite and cable
links. National education ceases to exist”
“Education, Globalisation & The Nation State”
Why educate your own people when you can
import some cheaper, or export the jobs?
Education for global profit
 Global spending on education exceeds one thousand
billion dollars
 World wide there are 50 million teachers employed
 Over one billion students are taught in hundreds of
thousands of educational establishments
 Education International - the international education
union organisation says,
“Some see this immense bloc as a
dream market for future investment”
“Liberalisation world-wide”
 World Trade Organisation,
“General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)…
“GATS is the first ever set of multilateral, legally
enforcable, rules governing international trade in services”
 The European Commission publication “World
Trade In Services”… “Services negotiations should
extend liberalisation world-wide, creating new trade and
investment opportunities in all service sectors”
 The European Union Constitution and the
European Services Directive reinforce these messages
Speaking personally...
Prof. James Tooley, privatisation theorist and
practitioner, Newcastle University,
“We mustn’t be tempted by the reassuring spin
that the public sector can hope to match the
incentives of the private sector. The way forward
for education is to bring in (these) incentives…
Education is far too important to be excluded
from the virtues of the profit motive”
and from the USA...
Michael Milken, a leading US finance capitalist,
speaking to Arthur Levine, President of Teachers’
College, Columbia University…
“You guys are in trouble…
and we’re gonna eat your
lunch…”
The end of state
education?
As Education International puts it…
“In the wake of other major public
services which have been subject to
extensive privatisation & deregulation,
public education is being increasingly
targeted by predatory and powerful
entrepreneurial interests. The latter are
aiming at nothing less than its
dismantling by subjecting it to
international competition.”
Possible outcomes?
Academic, privately run, high flying “top
up” fee paying schools staffed by qualified
teachers, with locally negotiated pay and
conditions - and financially supported by
the private sector or owned by them.
“Vocational” schools, providing core
curriculum - and post 14 training in FE
colleges and on employers’ premises.
Many classes run by non QTS staff.
Social Partnership… and
Divide & Rule
The Government attempts to
incorporate potential opposition…
 The Workload/Remodelling Agreement and WAMG
 The School Workforce Restructuring Agreement
 Rewards and Incentives Group
 The pre-election Warwick Agreement
 Performance management regulations
 Teachers’ duties
Off the back foot…
taking the initiative...
NUT’s “Bringing Down The Barriers”
A new “Great Education Debate”
“A Good Local School For Every Child”
Re-organising our Unions to meet the task
Professional Unity and broad coalitions
TUC policy for “An integrated programme
of educational, vocational training and
youth employment”