EDUCATION secretaries need to ‘up their game’, listen to the professionals or step away to avoid damaging children’s life chances, says Association of Teacher and Lecturer’s (ATL) president Mark Baker.
Speaking in London at the president’s reception on Thursday night, Baker said to Nicky Morgan and future secretaries of state for education: ‘I say to secretaries of state for education, “up your game” and listen to those who know.
‘And I say to policy-makers, if you can’t deliver on the curriculum, on assessment and on inspection then step away, you’re damaging the life chances of too many.’
He said secretaries of state for education need to ‘offer us a balanced and effective curriculum that meets the needs of all our children and young people, not one that seeks to recreate your youth and fails to meet the needs of so many’.
He urged: ‘Move away from a soul-destroying assessment regime that saps every ounce of hope and enthusiasm because it adds nothing to what we already know.’
Baker said it does not matter who is education secretary if they continue the endless round of upheaval and flawed policies. He stressed: ‘Even if Michael Gove was the worst secretary of state for education since the beginning of time it doesn’t matter.
‘And it doesn’t matter if his successors are good, bad or indifferent, if we have to pick up the pieces of yet more failed policies, with more upheaval for our youngsters as one more policy-maker seeks to unpick the work of their predecessor.’
He said this and previous governments’ ‘endless initiatives and countless reorganisations have served as major distractions from our really important work – to inspire, make learning fun and interesting, and support and help children feel secure’.
Talking about the coalition government’s regime, Baker said: ‘As education secretary, Michael Gove drove this coalition government’s policies not through logic, evidence or the power of persuasion, but through a culture of threats, division, the need to be right and on false accountability.
‘Mr Gove’s ideology, now his legacy, belongs to a time gone by and is not fit for the 21st century, with his narrow, academic curriculum more at home in the 19th century.
‘There should be no place for an ideology where it doesn’t matter that children are different and learn in different ways. Schools should not be forced to focus only on the children who will provide the best returns, to the exclusion of the others.’
Talking about Ofsted, Baker said: ‘We all know Ofsted is no longer fit for purpose, relying on the language of the bully, using theories of the 1950s, changing the goalposts every minute to cover its tracks.
‘This dysfunctional inspection regime destroys promising careers on a daily basis, crushing innovation and imposing constraints that suck the life-blood from those who already do their best.’
Baker condemned the inequality and poverty many people face as a result of government policies. He said: ‘We are a nation that lives under a cloud of division, inequity and blame – with a macho “you’re fired” culture as seen on TV, but also workplaces and schools.
‘Too many of our youngest adults in society are unemployed, robbed of hope, or for those working, subjected to exploitation, a minimum wage and zero-hours contracts.’
He criticised the move to get a quick profit out of education: ‘Finally, and most importantly, we want a fair, not-for-profit education system with tax-payers’ money going to support learning and aspirations of children, not into the bank accounts of those who seek to make a quick profit or bleed the system dry.’
Baker concluded that education matters because the life chances of young people rely on successful teaching and learning.
He said: ‘It matters that young people have a stake in society, for their fulfilment in life, their role as citizens and everyone’s prosperity, so we need our education secretaries and policy-makers to up their game.’
Meanwhile, commenting on new education secretary, Nicky Morgan, saying she is open to the possibility of allowing schools to make a profit, ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: ‘We are totally opposed to schools and colleges being run for profit.
‘Taxpayers’ money should go to support the learning and aspirations of our children, not into the bank accounts of those who seek to make a quick profit or bleed the system dry.’
Earlier, Morgan denied the government is planning to oblige secondary schools to divide pupils into ability groups, in the wake of an angry reaction by heads and teachers to reports that it is.
She told MPs there was ‘absolutely no truth’ in suggestions that Ofsted would be asked to promote such ‘setting’ into ability groups. Setting means dividing pupils into ability groups for separate subjects.
Responding to news stories in The Guardian on Wednesday that Morgan intends to introduce compulsory ‘setting by ability’ in schools, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: ‘This is yet more ill thought-out policy imposed from on high.
‘The way schools organise their classes should be the decision of the school and not the Secretary of State. Setting does not always lead to better outcomes for pupils and needs to be used advisedly.
‘The stigmatisation that comes from being set in certain ability groups can lead to a lack of confidence and enthusiasm from pupils.
‘Considering the government’s academies and free schools programme was designed to be free of such state control, it is surprising such an idea would be thought to be either workable or desirable.
‘Schools were left reeling from the previous Education Secretary’s continual meddling and flights of fancy as to what worked in schools. They do not need more of the same from Nicky Morgan.’
ATL general secretary Bousted said: ‘If Nicky Morgan is committed to closing the gap for disadvantaged children the last thing she should do is to divide children into ability sets and to use Ofsted to enforce this. This is educationally unjustifiable.
‘The evidence is overwhelming that this practice holds back poor children, denying them access to an appropriately demanding curriculum.
‘Any claim that Ofsted is independent of government ideology will be shot to pieces if the agency is required to enforce ministerial dogma.’
General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Brian Lightman, said that ‘professional decisions like this should be left to teachers’.
He added: ‘If schools are already achieving high standards within a mixed ability context, it is surely wrong to make them change because of a political whim.
‘There is a complete contradiction in terms of policy. The government promised autonomy, which means trusting teachers. Telling schools how to organise their classes completely flies in the face of this.
‘The evidence shows that setting is not always effective and should be used carefully.’
