Tory master plan for a new social order

“Our school is being absolutely bullied, and we are sick to death of it”, said one parent outside Downhills Primary School in Tottenham, North London, after the sacking by the government of the entire board of governors. “Absolutely appalling. Almost like a dawn raid. We live in a democracy, I thought,” said another.

Teachers, parents, councillors, the local MP and the (former) governors at the school are resisting a decree by Michael Gove, the education secretary, for the school to be transformed into an business-sponsored Academy. A plan for improving Downhills was in place and working, say campaigners, and an Ofsted inspection in September bore this out.

The Academy programme, together with the encouragement of so-called Free Schools, is the principal way in which the government is fragmenting — perhaps “fracturing” would be a more accurate word – the state education system. Academies, which are better resourced, will inevitably lead to even greater social divisions as parents try to get their children into the best schools.

The old arrangement of co-operation between schools within a local authority is rapidly being replaced by competition between them. Running parallel to this assault on the state schools is the opening up of the National Health Service to the market place and to the private sector. Their plans require that services and courses of treatment be put out to tender. This will inevitably lead to the dismantling of the old NHS as a universal provider of healthcare at the point of need, as different suppliers compete for business for profit.

In its haste to transform both basic education and health provision, the ConDem coalition has been forced to face down almost universal condemnation of its plans by the professionals who work in the services. Only last weekend, in a poll conducted by the Royal College of Physicians, seven out of 10 hospital doctors wanted the health and social care bill to be withdrawn. In fact the entire medical community is almost unanimous in its opposition.

So why is the coalition government ignoring health and education professionals? We were given a clue over the weekend when it announced that national pay rates for teachers, nurses and civil servants (among others) were to be scrapped. Workers in poorer parts of the country will have their pay frozen until they come into line with local private sector rates.

In the name of “more flexibility”, “genuine decision-making at the local level” and a “modern and responsive work-force”, the government is in fact driving fast towards a society where trade unions are sidelined, an atomised society divided in countless ways, but especially in the quality of health care and education on offer to different income groups.

Driven by the rolling economic crisis and by private sector outfits expressing their “dismay” at the quality of education and demanding a slice of the NHS and education budgets, the government is feeling its way towards a new social order with tax cuts for the rich, unemployment and poverty for the working-class youth. As a statement from the Anti-Academies Alliance puts it: “There will be winners and losers, mergers and acquisitions and fear and uncertainty as the grip of corporate raiders tightens on our schools”. And on our NHS it could be added.

Looking to the Labour Party for leadership, as most of the trade union leaders still do, is the road to ruin. The last Labour governments, after all, developed the Academy programme and accelerated the privatisation process in schools and the NHS. Labour's priority, like that of the Tories and the Lib Dems, is to save the capitalist system whatever the human cost.

So how else can the gathering opposition to this government be manifested except through local people’s assemblies where all community groups — including parents, teachers, health workers and users of NHS services — can work out new policies based on the needs of the people in general? A mass challenge aimed at replacing Tory rule for good is the only option left.

Peter Arkell

Market destroying state education

Coalition measures to encourage the creation of more academies and “free schools” point are creating a market for learning, destroying at a stroke the right of all children to a decent state education.

This market takes the form of setting up, in each area, a number of different types of school, all in competition with each other for students and exam results.

Where once there was a community of comprehensive schools, cared for by a single authority, there are now academies, free schools, technology colleges, comprehensive schools and church schools, all in competition with each other.

This chaotic free-for-all, trumpeted by the Tories for giving parents the freedom of choice, is in fact leading to a two-tier or even three-tier education system that guarantees unfairness.

The academies have private sponsors though they are funded directly by the state, the free schools are run by private outfits (often churches or businesses) and they all have different selection criteria, a situation which quickly leads to a polarisation

As is often the case with Tory policies, the impetus and the pioneering work for this unfair system comes from New Labour. It was the Blair government that turned its back on the comprehensive model towards a return to the old divisive grammar school/ secondary modern system, but with different names.

New Labour set up academies in the secondary sector and encouraged the growth of so-called faith schools. The Tories have seized on the idea, inviting any school to apply for academy status. Many of the strongest secondary schools, as well as some primaries, have done exactly that. Michael Gove, the education secretary, has recently announced that the “weakest” 200 primary schools will become academies in September 2012, thus undermining early-school education.

It is usually the head teacher, supported by the governors, who decides to convert to academy status because they see financial advantages for the school, and because they will have some control over selection – i.e. they can select unfairly, and can keep out problem children and those on school meals.

Parents and the teaching staff (who, unbelievably are not amongst those groups that the government suggests should be consulted) often do not agree. Conflict follows. Teachers and parents at Haverstock School, in Camden, North London, succeeded last week in forcing the head teacher and the governors to abandon their plan to become an academy.

The school, which boasts both Milliband brothers as former pupils, is a high-achieving one, but the prompt formation of a protest campaign forced a rapid re-think by the head, who said the school was not willing to be at the centre of a politicised debate for a long period.

For the Tories, breaking up state education has obvious advantages. As a pamphlet produced by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers points out. Instead of a national education service, locally administered, the ATL says, we are moving towards a national service, privately administered, funded by the taxpayer, but with all democratic accountability lost.

Private companies can move in, and many are queuing up for a slice of the action. Babcock Education made £23.6 million out of education in 2009, and has dreams of running a chain of 1,000 schools. ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) which calls itself a “philanthropic co-operative” runs eight academies and was set up and run by hedge fund managers.

The other great advantage for the Tories of creating academies and free schools is that they operate under private school legislation. They are not bound by any national or local agreements with the teaching unions. The considerable power of the unions can be gradually eroded, teacher’ pay cut, while head teachers become “fat cats”.

State schools are being re-organised to benefit the middle classes and churchgoers. As the private companies move in, looking for profits even if they are charities, so the life chances for children living in families on or below the poverty line plummet.

Peter Arkell