Election 2010 Education wishlist
In The News, National Curriculum, Ofsted, Politics, Tuition Fees Thursday, May 6th, 2010
In “Ten education issues the new government should address“, former director of the Institute of Education (doesn’t say which one) Peter Mortimore tells us his wishlist for the next government.
We also have a wishlist for the new party of the moment:
1. Entrust control of Education to an independent body accountable only to the law courts. Set Education free from partisanship and politicking.
2. Allow teachers to educate as they see fit. Release them from the insanity of non-pedagogical paperwork and observation merry-go-rounds. Restore pride and trust in teaching staff by deferring to their better judgement in terms of learning and discipline.
3. Remove unnecessary layers of middle managers and administrators. Pay teaching staff for undertaking non-teaching duties i.e. goodwill.
4. Raise salaries, increase pension allowances, restore holiday entitlements and collaborate with private companies to offer concessions e.g. gym, holidays, car ownership, childcare costs, for teaching staff.
5. Scrap the national curriculum and replace with locally-set curriculums based on local demands and context.
6. Reintroduce Saturday sport and activity clubs with staff paid for OT.
7. Disband OfSTED and charge inspectors with bringing the teaching profession into disrepute.
8. End top-down, centralised research projects and reward teaching staff for conducting and recording research of their own. Research methods and theory training to be mandatory for all new teachers.
9. Restore parity between managerial and teaching staff salaries. Remember that it is teachers and not managers who are important.
10. Place enjoyment at the heart of Education once more.
11. Stop relying on Education to solve social problems. Force parents and guardians to take more responsibility for their children’s education.
12. Create a new teaching union without links to the Labour party.
13. Stop private businesses, religious organisations and lone philanthropists from running schools.
14. Force Oxbridge and other leading universities to accept state school quotas.
15. Abolish fee-paying schools.
16. Scarp tuition fees. Return the money generated by students loans and tuition fees to students. Apologise to the younger generation for making them foot the bill for something that should be theres by right.
17. Stop relying on international students to fund domestic students.
18. No SATs etc. for under 18′s. Examinations to be a last resort.