About Us
EducationState is an international group of educationalists based mainly in the UK drawn from various fields closely allied to many socially-committed and investigative organisations.
Our primary goal is to draw public attention to what educational professionals really think: of their workplaces, of government policy and of the wider issues that affect their daily lives.
Our motivation:
We believe – as many do – that state-run education is one of Western society’s main achievements and a key pillar of a fair and civilised society. Just like with medicine or law, we also believe that decisions regarding best educational practice should be left in the hands of those with the most expertise i.e. professional teachers.
A teacher-run education system would mean responsive and carefully tailored school, college and university policies. Such a system – free of party politics – would also mean that it would no longer be able to exploit education for economic or political advantage.
What else do we want:
-An end to tuition fees with any shortfall in the education budget to be met by a permanent tax on excessive bank and financial sector bonuses and the closing of tax avoidance loopholes
-Teaching salaries to match and be raised in line with other public sector professionals
-An education system overseen by an independent body free of party politics, management consultants and big business
-A legally guaranteed 35-hour week for teachers without goodwill overtime and additional non-teaching duties
-An end to unnecessary and dangerous innovations such as IfL, Teach First and Academies and a return to the state comprehensive system
-Quotas for UK universities whose student bodies do not accurately represent the proportion of young people from the state education system
-The return of a single national university entrance examination for all
-An end to competition in the examinations industry
-The immediate dissolution of Ofsted and an investigation into its staff and practices
-The setting up of a dedicated whistleblowing service for teachers
-Free after-school clubs for all
-Scrapping of national tests at 7, 11 and 14
-Fast-tracked students to be placed in classes based on ability not age
-Teachers in deprived or challenging areas to be paid extra
-Guaranteed nursery and university places for all
-An end to target-led, micro-managed lessons
-Unruly and disruptive pupils to be taken out of the system
-Parents of such pupils to be given mandatory parenting skills classes
-The creation of a politically-independent and institutionally-resourced education research council with responsibility for researcher training and appraisal
Work with us:
If you share our goals and motivation, we welcome your contributions and comments. Whoever you are – teacher, researcher, journalist, member of the public – our growing news platform is yours to share.