Stop Blair’s divisive Education Bill

Quality education for all

…not just the few!

BLAIR’S GOVERNMENT has unveiled its new Education Bill – MPs will
vote on it this month. Education Secretary Ruth Kelly claims this bill
will give "schools the freedoms they need to raise standards".

Many people involved in education totally disagree.

Martin Powell-Davies is secretary of Lewisham National Union of
Teachers branch. He told the socialist that he saw the bill as bringing
about ‘the fragmentation of our education system’.

"Our schools used to be able to cooperate in teaching children. Now
New Labour wants to force schools to compete with each other.

"The Bill openly encourages trust schools – state-run independent
schools that compete for the so-called ‘best’ pupils.

"The Bill gives big business and religious groups more power to take
over and run Trust schools, which are very like New Labour’s divisive
academies that are already running.

"When all the noise and clamour of a supposed backbench rebellion
dies down, what ‘concessions’ have Ruth Kelly and Tony Blair offered to
make sure there is some control over these ‘independent’ schools?

"Kelly herself said recently: ‘I remain committed to all the freedoms
for foundation and trust schools that we set out in the White Paper –
schools owning and controlling their own buildings, employing their own
staff and setting their admissions arrangements’. In other words, they
have made no real concessions at all."

An article in the guardian Education section (28 February) gives
statistical evidence backing up what socialists always warn – that a
child’s social background, i.e. their class, is the crucial factor in how
well they do in education.

Parents should not believe the propaganda that they will get more
‘choice’. In reality it’s usually the schools that have the choice. Most
schools want to pick more middle-class pupils to ensure they get good
results in the government’s league tables. Children from working-class
backgrounds often miss out.

Blair and Kelly’s ‘reforms’ are attacking comprehensive education,
working-class pupils’ chances of a decent education and teachers’ pay
and conditions. New Labour is abandoning the educational principles it
defended in the past and making education even more of a two-tier system

If we want to stop this and the rest of Blair and Brown’s big
business agenda, we cannot depend on Labour backbenchers developing an
occasional taste for rebellion.

We have to get organised in the local communities – uniting parents,
teachers and pupils to fight Labour’s attacks on education. And we need
to join the fight for a new workers’ party and campaign to attract to it
all those fighting for a decent education and well-provided public
services.

Feature:
Education under attack