We have to turn every school into a fortress against marketisation and privatisation under the slogan
"Proud of our schools, and proud of state education"
We can only win with the active involvement of members building broad local coalitions for comprehensive state education
General Secretary Steve Sinnott,
Chair of NUT Executive Education Committee Hazel Danson,
and English Secondary Student Association Emma Briermann
campaigning for education at the recent Compass conference in London
An Education System for the 21st Century - Which Way Forward?
"The June 27th national rally and lobby of Parliament, with good NUT participation and bringing together 14 Unions in opposing marketisation and privatisation of public services was a great success… It kick-started the campaign… now we are looking for the TUC to take the lead and organise all affiliated Unions in a concerted campaign nationally and locally...”
This was how our General Secretary, Steve Sinnott, began his report to the National Executive's Co-ordination & Finance Committee.
I was keen that we reinforce to members that the campaign is not one that is solely concerned with the Education Bill. Because of the "consensus" between New Labour and the Conservative "Opposition", the Bill is very likely to become law before the end of 2006.
But our campaign for systematic, integrated provision of state comprehensive education will need to continue way beyond that event. We need to rebuild all the campaigning coalitions built so successfully in the past that led first to the 1944 Act, and then to the Comprehensive education developments - developments which, of course, were never completed, and were always under attack.
We have to demonstrate that the opponents of state comprehensive education are willing, wittingly or unwittingly, to abandon very large numbers of working class children. The proponents of "choice" and the education market, are keen on competition between schools. And in competition there are winners and losers. The idea that competition is likely to improve provision for the losers is demonstrably absurd.
The result will be a two tier (or more) education system that benefits the children of those who already are advantaged, and provides an inferior - probably narrow vocational - "pathway" for those who are already disadvantaged economically, politically and socially.
Against this background, our campaign will continue - and it will grow. Wherever there is oppression, there is resistance.
We have excellent policy documents - eg Bringing Down The Barriers and A Good Local School For Every Child - and strong validation of those policies - eg Prof. Peter Mortimore's "Which Way Forward". www.teachers.org.uk We have a great deal to do to build a campaign around them. There was an excellent and lively discussion, during which I - and many others - made the following points, which were agreed
The campaign could not be one conducted by the National Executive, the National Officers, the General Secretary, the DGS and Union Officials alone. It must become one that involves members in considerable numbers.
It requires a much higher profile - it must be visible to the British people as a whole
We must aim to make every school a fortress against the marketisation and privatisation of education - encouraging them to adopt a slogan.. "Proud of our school, proud of state education" and to find a teacher, a member of the non-teaching staff, a parent and a governor prepared to act as campaign co-ordinators in the school
We need to build the broadest possible coalition of trades unions, parents, Governors, LEA workers, political organisations, community organisations - and this will mean taking very flexible approaches, without compromising principle
The campaign would need to draw parallels with the current deregulation and privatisation attacks on other public services - and attempt to get the big political context across in accessible form.
It was agreed that in a campaign of this breadth and longevity, we would need to encourage and challenge all members of the union to take part - and that therefore the activities planned for the campaign would need to be such that members were able to take them on, and not feel that they were signing their lives away.
To quote GCT Giles - a great NUT President in 1944 - speaking about the achievement of the 1944 Education Act, and the need to press
ahead for comprehensive education - or "the common school" as it was then known...
"Our responsibilities and our opportunities are immense - nothing less than the nurture, education and training of a generation with the necessary character, skill and knowledge, and the still more necessary devotion to the people's cause and the democratic way of life. For the cultivation of the human resources of the whole nation is a necessary condition of a developing and broadening democracy, just as social progress is a condition of a democratic education system.
It is a grand task, for which we will need all our strength and faith, for it will not be easy. The reactionary die-hard forces, which too often in the past have succeeded in strangling educational and social progress, have not undergone a sudden and miraculous change of heart. Against them we shall need all the strength, experience and leadership of our great Union and of a united profession. We shall need more. We shall need, and can win, the active sympathy and co-operation of a public opinion more enlightened and more determined than ever before to sweep aside the obstruction of vested interest and privilege. We need, and can win, the aid of the parents of the children, of a united people.
With the aid of the common people we can conquer the future for all children; with their aid we can secure as the prize of our victory over fascism and reaction a free and prosperous Britain. That victory will open up new opportunities, new hopes, and new visions. It will lay upon us the responsibility of seeing that these hopes are not betrayed."
I couldn't put it better myself!