EDUCATION has been one of Labour’s great success stories of the past decade. We’re all familiar with the list of our achievements: extra investment, more teachers and support staff, and new school buildings all leading to rising standards.
But beneath that overall picture is an untold story. While the historic link between poverty and educational attainment remains, the evidence shows we are now breaking it.
Last week’s GCSE results for every school in the country showed that schools in the most deprived areas have seen the fastest rises in results. The most deprived local authorities have seen above average rises in attainment. And the gap between the poorest children and the rest is narrowing year on year.
This is exactly what the Labour Government’s education policy is all about. It’s essential to increase social mobility and break cycles which pass poverty from one generation to the next. And while we should shout about it from the rooftops, we should also be impatient to do even more.
We are proud of our record in reducing child poverty, but there is further to go and our new Child Poverty Bill will enshrine in law our commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020. But while too many young people are still not getting the fair chance they should to fulfil their potential, it’s frustrating that in some places there’s still a culture which says: “Kids from this area can’t achieve, they can’t succeed in English and maths”.
I say there should be no excuses. It can be done. I’ve seen it at schools such Morpeth School in Tower Hamlets, which is not only one of the poorest boroughs in the country, but also one of the boroughs which has achieved the biggest increases in results in the past 10 years.
And I’ve seen it at the David Young Community Academy in east Leeds, which is changing the life chances of children in a poor part of the city. With a fair and comprehensive intake, the school has seen its results rise year on year – a transformation compared to the two schools it replaced. The school’s ethos is crucial. Instead of excusing or explaining away poor performance, they say every child can and should succeed – no matter what their background.
That’s what I want for every school. Through the National Challenge, we will ensure that every school gets at least
30 per cent of its pupils achieving five
or more GCSEs at the higher grades of A*-C, including those critical subjects of English and maths. In 1997, more than half of our schools were under this benchmark. Today, that’s down to just 440 – just one in seven schools – on the road to zero by 2011.
We’re putting in the extra investment and we’ll put in new leadership where that’s necessary. Head teachers in these schools will also be able to offer a £10,000 “golden handcuff” for three years services in order to recruit and retain the best teachers. We’ll do whatever it takes to get there and we won’t excuse poor performance.
This requires a systematic approach with a credible plan to get every school on the right track, depending on their individual strengths and weaknesses.
We couldn’t have done it a decade ago, when some 1,600 schools were below the threshold. Yet even with 440 schools, you cannot do it all from the centre. Local authorities should be in the driving seat, fulfilling their proper strategic role to raise standards in local schools. We won’t approve plans that aren’t up to scratch and we’ll step in and intervene where local councils are letting children down.
The Tories reject this. They say there should be no role for local government and no strategic approach to driving up standards. Instead of making sure every school is a good school, they would leave it entirely down to market forces.
Their new “Swedish” schools would see hundreds of new schools and hundreds of thousands of surplus places appearing whenever and wherever a willing group of parents or sponsor comes forward – regardless of local need or circumstances.
Engaging parents is a good thing, which is why the 100 co-operative trust schools I announced last year will see more parents involved in running local schools. But if a school in a disadvantaged area needs extra investment or new leadership, simply leaving it to chance and the willingness of parents to come forward and set up a new school isn’t good enough.
Instead of stepping in to make sure standards in our poorest communities are rising, the Tories would ignore under-performing schools and allow them to wither. David Cameron won’t say what would happen to existing schools in areas where the new ones spring up, but he is clear that he’ll cut £4.5 billion from Labour’s existing school rebuilding programme. In short, the Tories would divert investment from areas that need it to a risky free market experiment.
So the choice is between Labour’s guarantee of rising standards and a Tory schools lottery. It’s either a policy which will continue breaking the link between poverty and low attainment or right-wing dogma which risks cementing it.
Ed Balls is Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families and Labour MP for Normanton
