EDUCATION AND SKILLS

RESPONSE TO PARTNERSHIP IN POWER SECOND YEAR CONSULTATION:

1. CHRISTIAN SOCIALIST MOVEMENT (CSM)

1.1 CSM is a movement of Christians with a radical commitment to social justice, protecting the environment and fostering peace and reconciliation. CSM believes that ‘loving one’s neighbour’ in the fullest sense involves struggling for a fair and just society, one in which all can enjoy the ‘fullness of life’ Jesus came to announce.

1.2 CSM is proud to be affiliated to the Labour Party and engages fully with the Party at all levels. Members are active locally in their CLPs and CSM sends delegates to Party Conference each year. At the Party’s invitation we organise the official Conference service and we also run a high-profile fringe programme. We currently have some 50 members in the Lords and Commons, including current and former Cabinet members and the Prime Minister. CSM members pledge to work in prayer and political action for the values of Christian Socialism. Our values form the basis of our response to this consultation.

2. PREAMBLE

2.1 CSM welcomes the document and the thrust of the policies it advocates. We have set it against our stated values and seek to offer constructive criticism and ideas designed to develop Labour Policy in the field. We note a considerable overlap with another document, ‘The Children’s Plan’, and have not commented in detail on issues more appropriately covered there.

3. GIVING EVERY CHILD THE BEST START IN LIFE

3.1 Improving a child’s life chances

3.1.1 The document commends education as enabling young people to avoid ‘the worst jobs’, and we agree that young people should be encouraged to be ambitious in developing their own skills, knowledge and talents. Not only is that important personally, but our future success depends on innovation and high levels of skill. However, all honest labour should be given status, especially those jobs which nobody wants to do yet are essential for any society. If jobs are socially worthwhile then it is important that they are given status and that the people who do them are not ‘looked down upon’. We should not have a category of necessary jobs which only economic migrants are willing to undertake. We question the morality of using migrants with high-level skills, which are needed in their home countries, to do jobs here whose status is low and which do not use those skills. The culture of presenting children with unrealistic ambitions based on celebrity jobs and lifestyles also needs to be challenged. Unglamorous yet socially-useful jobs should be afforded both status and a fair wage so that young people will undertake them with a sense of pride.

3.2 Sure Start

3.2.1 The success of this scheme lies not only in what it does for children from challenging backgrounds but in the way it empowers people and gives a sense of ownership. It is important that this is valued in its own right and that Sure Start is targeted at the areas of most need rather than those where effective community leadership already exists.

3.3 Childcare for working families

3.3.1 The need for childcare to be available is indisputable, although we would contend that in the early years of life the most appropriate carers for babies and young children are normally the parents.

3.3.2 Child minding tends to have low status and attract low pay, despite all the evidence that the ‘early years’ of life are crucial. There is a case for raising its status and for reducing the perceived or actual damage to the careers and pensions of mothers who take a ‘career break’ for child-bearing. More flexible working policies would enable women either to combine a caring role with a contribution to the economy or to focus for a period on a caring role. Attention should be given to pension protection and a right to return to employment following a childbearing break as an alternative to maternity leave.

4. NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

4.1 Children in Care

4.1.1 We welcome measures to give special assistance to children in care. Children in care are among the most vulnerable in society and most likely to suffer from poor outcomes. Labour Party policy should include a commitment to pursue policies which prioritise vulnerable children and to enable their potential – so often ignored by people who are only too ready to write them off - to be developed.

4.1.2 We welcome the idea of one-to-one tuition in key subjects. Consideration should be given to the idea of children having, at home or school, a person with the responsibility of talking through with them the work they undertake in the classroom. This person could give assistance and support in a natural, informal manner. This could be seen as an aspect of the new Children’s Plan.

5. HIGHEST STANDARDS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

5.1 Broadening horizons (Primary and Secondary Education)

5.1.1 One area omitted from this section of the document is education in matters of faith. Children and young people of all faiths and none should receive education about the main faiths practised in the UK. In such education children should be encouraged to consider their own and other faiths and philosophies in a critical way.

5.1.2 All schools in receipt of state funding should be required to include Religious Education according to the local ‘Agreed Syllabus’. This would mean that church schools, ‘faith schools’, all trust schools and all academies would educate children about the main faiths to be found in the UK, fostering an understanding of the main beliefs and world-views with a view to contributing significantly to community cohesion. Faith-based schools could be free to give additional teaching about their particular faith, but in addition to, not instead of, the Agreed RE Syllabus – and what is taught should be open to public scrutiny. Parents could, as at present in LEA schools, ‘opt out’ of the whole package (not simply the Agreed syllabus part). In fact few do opt out at present. The anomaly that academies are not required to offer Agreed Syllabus RE should be ended. We strongly affirm the right of people of faith, driven by a concern for the wellbeing of others, to be involved in education provision but we have grave concerns about the principle of selection on the basis of ‘faith’.

5.1.3 All Religious Education and worship should be subject to the same system of inspection as other subjects and aspects of the curriculum. As mentioned above, church/faith-based schools should be free to supplement the agreed syllabus with teaching and activities associated with their faith, though both what is taught and how it is taught should be open to public scrutiny.

6. EVERY SCHOOL A GOOD SCHOOL

6.1 Diversity of schools

6.1.1 A clear distinction should be made between church schools, faith schools, faith-based trusts and academies.

6.1.2 The Church of England and Methodists were the main providers of public education for the general population before state provision. Roman Catholics and Jews later provided schools for their communities. In each case schools are under the control of established religious authorities. New faith or faith-based schools appear to be under the control of governing bodies, though the faith represented may have no national body which (like the Church of England Board of Education) can be called to account. The rules of governance are therefore a crucial element in the avoidance of schools coming under the control of extremist elements, with serious consequences for the future. This concern might be satisfied by the introduction of a measure for giving the Government (as the primary funding body) an effective veto over certain decisions. This is how some Church bodies preserve ultimate control over the character of their institutions and use of assets.

6.2 Engaging young people

6.2.1 An issue not addressed in this document (nor in the Children’s Plan) is the absence of male role models in the lives of many children. This absence may be due to family circumstances where the ‘lone parent’ is usually the mother, while another factor is the overwhelming predominance of women in schools and associated support services. While there is no simple solution it is necessary to recognise the problem, which may be a factor in the underperformance of some boys and their alienation from the education system. We are concerned about the especial vulnerability of boys to be drawn into gangs where the use of guns and drugs are commonplace. The most influential role models are those with whom children are in daily contact, and here it is necessary to highlight the role of teachers and the support services. It should be a priority to recruit a significant proportion of men into these positions so that boys will have positive role models in schools in early and middle years as well as at the secondary level.

6.2.2 The Public Social and Moral Education syllabus favours marriage whilst not in anyway denigrating other home situations in which children are raised. There is strong evidence that children develop best when raised within the context of a lifelong relationship between their natural parents, enhanced further by contact with grandparents and other members of the extended family. We commend programmes which recognise this, such as Evaluate (www.evaluate.org.uk). Evaluate’s ‘Informing Choice’ is ‘a sex and relationship education programme delivered in schools by teams of trained volunteer educators. The three age-appropriate multimedia presentations seek to empower young people to make healthy informed decisions and support them in delaying sexual experience until a long-term committed exclusive relationship, ideally marriage.’

6.2.3 When teaching about attitudes towards the opposite sex the concept of respect should be stressed as the central principle, along with the importance of sex within the context of a ‘relationship’ rather than for gratification or as a recreational or casual pursuit. It is important to emphasise the positive dimension of intimacy rather than merely promoting safe (or safer) sex and the avoidance of sexually transmitted disease and ‘unwanted’ pregnancy. We affirm the special status of marriage as a context for sexual relations.

6.2.4 We note that children and young people are invited to give opinions on certain topics and are included in planning. This should be taken further and the whole question of appropriate personal responsibility from an early age considered. Too much is done ‘for’ children rather than ‘with’ children.

6.2.5 Successive raising of the school leaving age has meant that the age of ‘consent’ now embraces those at school, with children increasingly aware of their rights. Children have traditionally contributed to family life through caring for siblings and sharing financial responsibilities, and this is not entirely absent today, for example where children assist disabled parents. Without burdening children to the detriment of their education the concept of regarding ‘family’ as an entity to which a contribution is owed, and gladly given, should be encouraged. Alongside this, a preparedness to contribute to society should be encouraged. We particularly commend promotion of ‘young leader’ schemes within youth organisations. We are concerned that children are having less ‘face-to-face’ contact today than previous generations, not least as a consequence of the rise in popularity of solo computer/internet games.

6.2.6 While we welcome the document’s pledge to provide safe play areas and extended school facilities and activities we question the concept of ‘wrap around’ provision. Such provision could lead to children spending a long time in one environment. Is the space outside the school so unsafe that children may not play unsupervised with friends? Where ‘wrap around’ provision is deemed to be appropriate ways should be found for voluntary and community organisations to contribute and for volunteers to be involved. Where, due to its catchment area, a school is ‘monocultural’, children should be introduced to diversity through both the curriculum and extra curricular activities.

6.2.7 Children need to be helped to be ready to face and handle situations where dangers are endemic. Lessons in cycling are to be encouraged, but it is less easy to prepare children for the dangers of drink, drugs and gangs. In some areas gangs use 9-year-olds as ‘runners’. It is important for schools to be aware of the reality in which their pupils are growing up and how best to help those pupils to cope, as well as working closely with all the other agencies that are engaged in support and development in the local community..

7. OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

7.1 Schools of the future

7.1.1 We endorse the idea of all children being encouraged to aspire to be the best they can, but suggest this be done in a spirit of cooperation rather than competition. Success can be seen as being part of a team and promoted as more satisfying than individual success, especially when this is at the expense of others. We would point to the use of this model in business training and to the success of cooperative movements in this country and worldwide, mutual societies and non-governmental organisations. In such organisations and charities job satisfaction springs from assisting others and achieving aims together. Such initiatives spring from the Christian Socialist origins of the Labour movement.

8. SKILLS AND LIFELONG LEARNING

8.1 We welcome the expansion of higher education but, with such a large percentage of the population targeted, we question the relevance of many courses to the needs of the economy. Adequate counselling needs to be available about post-school options and choices about courses of study. With increased targets for those entering higher education we suggest that greater recognition be given to crafts which in any case require increasing sophistication. For example, it might be appropriate to give recognition to a subject like plumbing by making it part of a wider course which on ‘domestic engineering’ – ensuring that it includes the right level of learning and challenge while respecting the basic skills and practicalities.

8.2 The practice of acquiring qualifications between school/university and employment can result in an accumulation of debt and an inability to assume family responsibilities or enter the property market. In particular students from backgrounds where there is no family or local tradition of participation in higher education can be discouraged by worry about debt. Measures to help students from poorer backgrounds do not always dispel such perceptions. We propose that Labour Party policy should be to build in ‘earning while learning’ provisions, especially in respect of courses in practical subjects, as well as extending the provision of full student grants.