{"id":4784,"date":"2015-06-30T11:12:07","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T11:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/?p=4784"},"modified":"2022-09-22T21:34:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T21:34:40","slug":"government-policies-are-turning-education-into-a-production-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dannydorling.org\/?p=4784","title":{"rendered":"Government policies are turning education into a production line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Classrooms are crumbling and inequality is getting worse, but the government\u2019s priorities are more testing and free schools
\nThe majority of young adults and the parents of young children in the UK did not vote for this government and with good reason. The only age group to swing towards the Conservatives were people aged over 65. Just enough of the affluent elderly were located in just the right places to matter<\/a>. Never under a democracy have so few wielded so much power over so many.
\nSo, the people who care most about education did not vote for the Tories, with their record of creeping privatisation, high-stakes testing, no new school building, the hiring of unqualified teachers and the raising of tuition fees.
\nAfter the election, primary school children in my home town wrote to the prime minister<\/a> imploring him to allow some spending so they did not have to freeze in their classrooms in winter. In response, the government said it was the council\u2019s responsibility. But it is central government that has cut council budgets, including those to maintain school buildings and heating systems.
\nThis government does not care about schools or children in poor areas. Why should it? Hardly any of its members of parliament represent such areas, or poorer children. So they do not repair damaged schools, or root out inequality, or shore up struggling families for the sake of their children\u2019s future.
\nInstead, they show what strange priorities they have. Even in hard times, money can be found for their untested educational whims. Some \u00a3241m has already been spent setting up free schools in areas where no need for new schools has been forecast<\/a>. Much more such spending is planned. Think how many school boilers and buildings could be repaired with that money<\/a>.
\nHuge amounts are also to be wasted on a few ministers\u2019 pet theories. From September, all children in English state schools will be tested<\/a> on their \u201cability\u201d in their first few weeks at school. What a stupid way to start a child\u2019s education \u2013 unless you really want to instil a sense of failure from a very early age.
\nPrivate companies have bid to carry out the new baseline tests, designed to create the illusion that you can determine a child\u2019s potential future at age four. The tests have been criticised and a call has been made<\/a> to boycott them.
\nYou cannot with any accuracy predict an individual child\u2019s future. The test scores of thousands of four-year\u2011olds will severely restrict their future achievement. The least confident, often children growing up in poverty, will be labelled \u201clow ability\u201d and of \u201climited potential\u201d from the start.
\nBy the time 2020 comes, what sort of state will the schools system be in? The buildings will be even more dilapidated. There will be an over-supply of places where free schools have proliferated<\/a>.<\/p>\n