It’s the same the whole world over -

Ain’t it all a bloomin’ shame? -

It’s the Rich what gets the pleasure

And the Poor what gets the blame…

Class and Education –

the most fundamental question of all

Class Divisions

There can be no doubt that the class divisions in our society result in underachievement by working class children – a disastrous waste of skill and intellect. I believe it should be a crime against the individual – but in fact it is deep-seated and continuing feature of our social system – despite having been clear to all for generations and certainly not a new discovery.

But the debate around the future of education again demands that we act on it, and not simply shrug it off – or look for easier targets to attack! It is the most fundamental “equalities issue”.

Consider this…

“There are no simple solutions to deep-seated problems of social, educational and economic inequality. But in these early years of the twenty-first century, we cannot accept the fact that too many young people fail to achieve their potential. The consequences are not just educational: they impact much more widely…

The research shows how it is possible to combine socio-economic classification of the household with the child’s overall developmental score at age 22 months to accurately predict educational qualifications at the age of 26 years….

The statistical analysis also reveals how, by the age of 22 months, children’s developmental score is already stratified by social class, and how this stratification has increased significantly by the age of 10 years.

The research also demonstrates that children of wealthy parents, who scored poorly on the developmental index in their early years, were still likely to catch up in later years – whereas the children of poorer parents were extremely unlikely to do so. Equally, those children from poorer families who scored highly in their early years are still much more likely to fall behind their wealthier peers who got low scores at 22 months…”

“Educational Failure & Working Class White Children In Britain” Gillian Evans       2006

Well, we’ve heard it all before… research throughout the 20^th century reached these conclusions, and now we can go on proving them to be true in the 21^st century.

So why has it not been tackled? Why are we as teachers not able to develop a strategy that would deal with it?

Is it true that, as Blunkett said, teachers “Use social deprivation as an excuse for failing children”?

Of course it is not true – the truth is that the Government – Blunkett’s Government and almost all before and after – with the notable and noble exception of that in the extraordinary political times following World War 2 – have failed to tackle the poverty and deprivation that are embedded and essential features of the British class system.

While educational strategies can offset and ameliorate against some effects of the wealth/poverty gap, of unemployment, poor housing, derelict communities, lack of aspiration etc… in the end the problem is one that needs tackling at its root. “Tackle the cause, not just the symptom,” is good advice – but sometimes requires much more difficult and demanding responses than just struggling against the manifestation of the problem.

Poor education does not cause poverty and social inequality – and therefore good education cannot overcome it. Class divisions, huge divisions in wealth and access to power are the result of an economic and political system that is almost defined by them, and depends on inequality for its existence. That is as true of the British system as it is of that in, say, Colombia.

Consider these statistics from the UK Government Office of National Statistics

The richest 1% of the UK population own 21% of the total wealth

The richest 5% own 40%

The richest 10% own 53%

...and the poorest 50% of the population own just 7% of the total wealth

If you exclude the value of the place of residence from this calculation (which is clearly not disposable or useable wealth for those with one house) the situation is even more stark

The richest 1% of the UK population own 34% of the total wealth

The richest 5% own 58%

The richest 10% own 71%

...and the poorest 50% of the population own just 1% of the total wealth

This is no accident. It is a lasting and defining characteristic of our economic system. The statistics, in this case, do not lie. The fact that there is a bigger overall economic “cake” in Britain than in countries of the developing world means that many more “ordinary people”  can get by on their tiny share than can do so in our example of Colombia. But there are also many in Britain who can’t "get by". And many of those who can are easily reduced to poverty through unemployment. Nearly all of us live just a couple of salary payments away from serious problems.

We see and recognise the devastating daily effects of inequality in the developing world, and between that world and the wealthy capitalist world. Many of us, despairing of the size of the problem and our own relative powerlessness, pacify our consciences  with the fatalistic thought that the poor will always be with us. How much easier it is to do this with the problem – the same problem of inequality – here at home. But the daily direct and devastating effects of social and economic inequality in Britain are not just on the pages of the research reports – they are in front of us daily in our classrooms, in our hospitals, in our jails and on the streets of our cities, and amongst those subject to rural poverty too.

We teachers have a responsibility here. What can we do?

 Firstly, we have to do away with the notion that education in itself can put the matter right. In a system which relies on the existence of ‘have-nots’ in order that the ‘haves’ can have more than their share – a LOT more than their share! – education structures continue to mirror this. How would society work if every child had the sort of education that the economic elite of the nation buys for their children? From where would come those who build their homes, deliver their post, tarmac their roads, load their lorries, and stack their shelves, staff their offices, fight their wars?

So the unpalatable and politically unpopular fact is, in my view, that educational underachievement is, far from being an economic problem for our society, is, in fact, an economic necessity. If it's money that makes the world go round, it is inequality in wealth and power that keeps it turning in the way we have come to accept as "normal". Yet the word and concept of “underachievement” is politically damaging. So it must be continually cloaked in new words and "spun" concepts.

Let’s try “elementary” education for example. At one time in the late 19^th century a huge “gift” to working people - "gentling the masses", and providing basic skills necessary for new work regimes. In the first part of the  20^th century, it remained all that working class children had the right to expect… and aim at success within. My own mother, for example, in the 1930s could not progress beyond 13+ - apart from the educational hurdles, the family needed her to get out to work. Then the post-War tripartite system, with its built-in notions of “success” in each of its so called “different but equal” parts – but differential success that allowed all the post-school social and economic inequalities to be legitimately sustained. Then the distortion of comprehensive education which is the inevitable result of neighbourhood schools for as long as neighbourhoods are class divided! Expectations and aspirations are largely as wide or as narrow as those of the adult neighbourhood – and those are governed by the real-life experiences of those people. Access to books, equipment and space to work at home is class determined, no matter what the school may wish.

Now, the Government strategy – including the Education & Inspections Act - will bring us new legitimacy in terms of social engineering and social division. We’ll see “Skills Academies” and Specialist Vocational Schools for what they call “disaffected” pupils, and Academic schools for those more “motivated” by such education. And of course it will be the latter that are populated by the children of those at the top of the social and economic pyramid – and it will be the qualifications that they offer that will keep their offspring there.

Meanwhile, working class children will be encouraged to succeed at other challenges – challenges which even if tackled successfully will never equip them to move into that elite. The much vaunted increase in numbers in Higher Education has seen an explosion of 'vocational' routes largely for working class students - and student fees and postgraduate debt are again discouraging working class young people from staying on.

Of course there are exceptions. Dozens, hundreds, possibly thousands of exceptions every year. But against the general story, these are small numbers indeed.

The fact is that we teachers need to be part of a wider movement that rejects the fundamental inequalities of society, rejects the social mechanisms that sustain that inequality, and works strategically against these. And we are part of that movement already. Within the TUC we have every conceivable group of workers, all of whom can combine to challenge those fundamentals.

But isn’t this too political?

 Unemployment? We must challenge why it exists. Inner-city decay? We must fight it alongside those who live in it. Poverty wages and exploitation? We must expose those who pay them, no matter how far up society’s tree they may be.  Or should we just read the research that exposes their effects on the children – but decide that to do anything about these issues would be “too political”?

I think we should take the Executive motion on social class and education – and we ought to add to it.

We teachers, who see the effects of social and economic inequality so clearly have a responsibility to be at the forefront of the Trade Union movement in opposing not just the symptoms of such inequality – but the causes. Let’s get to the root of the matter…

Let’s commission a definitive work on social class and education. What is the nature of our class system today? What is the condition of the English and Welsh working class? How do these conditions impact on education? What steps could be taken to put an end to the class system, and to the social and economic inequality it represents? What and who might prevent these steps being taken? How can we overcome these?

Let’s take a motion to the next TUC for an alternative strategy designed to overcome social and economic inequality currently so much a part of our collective lives – and let’s work with other trades unionists on promoting that strategy as a matter of urgency.

There will be many members who would regard this sort of work as too political for the Union to undertake. But it is often these very members who work long and hard – often too long and hard for their own health – to raise the aspirations and achievement of the underachieving children in their classroom. Their commitment is a very fine thing, but despite generations of such teachers, the problems remain.

All the evidence is that the solution is outside of the classroom. The solution is one based on social progress, on progressive policies that challenge the “global market”, the power of money, privilege and exploitation – and such policies do not come about without a bit of a struggle.

My view is that we teachers owe it to ourselves, the children we teach and the communities we serve to be at the forefront of that struggle. Though the solution lies outside of our classrooms and schools, our schools are at the hearts of our communities – and it is our communities that need to be inspired to believe that “another world is possible” and that it can be achieved. We can be an important part of that social process of change. Or we could do nothing.

This simple Conference motion restates what we’ve known at least since we started training as teachers – that we live in an unequal class divided society, and that this has a devastating effect on the children from the toughest backgrounds. And it gives us the opportunity, not just to note it, to bemoan it, to despair about it - but to begin to do something about it. I think it’s an opportunity not to be missed.

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