Commenting on Shadow Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson’s
speech which outlines Labour’s proposals to ‘get to grips’
with persistent non-attendance, Daniel Kebede,
General Secretary of the National Education Union,
said:
“We welcome Labour’s commitment to make education it’s priority
if it wins the next election. They will have much damage to
repair after over a decade of neglect and underinvestment by this
Government.
“We do not yet know the full details of Labour’s response. There
is certainly room for further development, in ways that fully
appreciate the depth of the crisis in our schools and colleges
and make a clean break with 14 years of failure.
“Putting children’s wellbeing at the heart of education means not
just greater opportunity for the arts and sport but an end to the
exam factory culture. It means lifting the pressure imposed on
teachers by a punitive inspection system.
“Designing new curricula around language development, reading,
writing and maths means listening to the profession and to a wide
range of researchers, not just groups which have shared the
ideological preferences of ministers.
“Attending to the material needs of children requires reform of
the benefits system, and a guarantee of free school meals for
all, as well as the welcome introduction of free breakfast clubs.
This academic year, every primary school in London has benefitted
from the successful roll out of Free School Meals to all pupils
up to Year 6, which has proved beyond doubt the hugely positive
impact universal FSM provision has on pupils, parents and their
wider community.
“Using artificial intelligence to join up the systems which
collect data on children must take account of the risks involved
– processes and purposes must be transparent; data must not be
exchanged with commercial companies or used for such purposes as
control of migration.
“Healing our damaged education system needs to involve rebuilding
and resourcing local authorities to have the capacity to support
schools. Children’s services have been decimated through
austerity and they will need to be painstakingly rebuilt if
Labour are to achieve their aims.
“We have a chance in the next couple of years to begin the work
of rebuilding our broken education system. Educators are looking
to politicians to match their policies to the scale of the
problems.”
