The Guardian view on Labour education policy: a sure start Editorial
-
Loading... - Amelia Osborne
- 26 Sep 2021
- 822 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Tony Blair was elected prime minister in 1997 on the back of a promise to prioritise “education, education, education”. Transformation of the economy, not schools, is the heart of the Corbyn/McDonnell programme. But the Labour leader knows that the former depends on the latter. When he announced plans for a National Education Service during his leadership campaign in 2015, the argument he made was about boosting productivity. Since then, the idea has grown. Rather than a single organisation, such as NHS England, the NES is a kind of shorthand for a set of universal, cradle‑to-grave entitlements – which would vary across the UK depending on which of the relevant powers and responsibilities have been devolved.
Most prominent among the policies under this umbrella is the promise to abolish university tuition fees. Shadow education minister Gordon Marsden has been tasked with coming up with a solution to Britain’s longstanding problem with training. In her speech to Labour’s party conference on Monday, shadow education secretary Angela Rayner set out her party’s plans for schools and pre-schools. The priorities are clear: increasing resources and accountability.
School spending per pupil in England has fallen by about 8% in real termssince 2009, with a smaller fall in Wales of about 5%. On Friday headteachers will take the unusual step of marching on Downing Street with a letter of complaint. Special needs provision and staffing has been cut, the curriculum has shrunk. This is the reality facing any government. In this context Labour’s promise of new funding for schools can only be welcome, while the policy of providing free, universal nursery education – described by Ms Rayner as a “new public service” and costed by Jeremy Corbyn at £4.6bn – is a truly radical step and a fitting successor to the flagship New Labour policy of Sure Start. The emphasis on inclusion is also extremely welcome. The increasing segregation of children with special educational needs and disabilities is one of the single worst effects of the policies of recent years.
Given recent controversies surrounding academies, it is unsurprising that the promise to roll back the freedoms of academies and free schools while increasing councils’ powers grabbed headlines. While much detail remains to be worked out, for example on admissions, these look like reasonable steps. There are far too many expensive failures among free schools. There is no reason why clamping down on related-party transactions and excessive executive pay should hinder academies in their task.
If the direction of travel, away from marketisation and towards increased democratic oversight, is clear, some campaigners may be disappointed that more radical changes aren’t yet on the table. This week saw no new announcements on grammar schools, faith schools or private schools – beyond the existing policy of ending their exemption from VAT. But for several reasons, caution is wise. The last 20 years have made an already fragmented and complex system even more fragmented and complex. Reforms will be hard to unwind, while local authorities are already stretched beyond their limits. Labour has much else to be getting on with – not least Brexit. The last thing schools need is another set of reforms thrust on them from above, without detailed consultation. What they need, instead, is for politicians to hand back much greater control over such areas as curriculum development, while keeping in mind what Ms Rayner referred to as the “human right” to education, along with the demands of our 21st-century economy.
