An opposition must oppose – Labour should be less timid on education

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jul/13/opposition-labour-education-leadership-candidates

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Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, in an article for Guardian Education last month, explained why Labour failed to offer a “compelling enough” vision for education in the last election. To judge by my straw poll of readers, his piece provoked frustration all round. Why didn’t Labour put up a more robust fight on education policy? Couldn’t some of these points have been made earlier? It is a bit late now. These were common responses.

The roots of Labour’s election defeat clearly go much deeper than its schools policies. But one of the fundamental tasks of opposition is to oppose – and look at where the failure to do that robustly has got us.

The latest onslaught of central control, introduced in the education and adoption bill going through parliament, makes a mockery of autonomy, devolution and local voice. The secretary of state has appointed herself national school improvement tsar with powers to appoint emergency governing bodies, oversee individual improvement plans and force academisation on thousands of communities, even though there is virtually no evidence that this ideological experiment works.

The right to local objections or consultation is severely limited. Central command and control of all schools will be exercised through eight regional school commissioners with limited resources, whose performance is partly determined by the numbers of schools they can convert to academy status.

Then there is the backward-looking curriculum – quite the most restrictive in my lifetime. Whether through new performance measures such as Progress 8, or by Ebacc diktat, it is inevitable that some creative and technical subjects, crucial to the flourishing of individual character as well as life chances, will wither on the vine. Vocational education is rarely mentioned these days.

It is highly likely that gaps in performance between children from different social backgrounds will now start to widen. Funding cuts and teacher shortages will be damaging enough, but the big ministerial stick, designed to whack coasting schools, won’t be falling on the complacent grammar schools or comprehensives in the leafy suburbs.

It is impossible to overstate the task faced by whoever wins the Labour leadership in September

Instead, the poorest schools are in the firing line. This will almost certainly reduce incentives for the best heads and teachers to work in those schools. The new definition of child poverty, which includes GCSE outcomes, won’t help, heaping more blame on schools for wider societal problems.

All in all, there is plenty of opposition to be getting on with. Such is the feeling among heads and teachers, even those in the independent sector, that it wouldn’t surprise me if the tipping point of the Gove years finally came on the more emollient Nicky Morgan’s watch.

But we can’t leave the alternative arguments to individual bloggers, outspoken heads and the leadership of the CBI, all of whom seem to make more sensible speeches and interventions in education policy than many politicians.

It is time for the new Labour leader to step up to the plate. For me, interviewing all the leadership candidates for an article last week was illuminating.

There were no fireworks and remarkably few stark ideological differences between them. Each has a particular passion: early years (Liz Kendall), child wellbeing (Yvette Cooper), the meaning of comprehensive education (Andy Burnham), local democratic control of schools and an end to selection (Jeremy Corbyn). Despite that, they all seem to be coalescing around one theme: how do you give all young people access to a broad, rounded education, including the arts, enrichment and high-quality vocational courses, while finding the right mix of central direction, school-level autonomy and good local oversight to ensure rigour and standards?

This may not be eye-catching, but it is a far cry from what we face from the Tory government. More importantly, if the detail is worked out carefully and sold with confidence I believe this is what most parents and pupils want.

For much of the past five years, Labour has appeared conflicted and timid about the coalition’s reforms, about its own record and about its core principles. It is impossible to overstate the task faced by whoever wins the leadership in September.

The most frustrating aspect of opposition is the sense of powerlessness and inability to change anything. But being effective at opposing counts for something. Even better if the desire to oppose a very bad set of government policies starts with the leader of the opposition. I have recorded all the interviews I conducted, and look forward to seeing the successful candidate’s ambitions translated into practice.