Just two months into the Con-Dem coalition and the fissures are already beginning to show. The latest politician to find himself up to his neck in ordure is Education Secretary Michael Gove. Perhaps we should not be surprised that the first act of this former journalist should be to condemn many thousands of school-aged children to a second-rate education.
Gove’s decision to halt Labour’s flagship Building Schools for the Future programme, which promised to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in Britain, has left thousands of children facing years of Dickensian classroom conditions. In an attempt to play his part in reducing the national deficit, Gove’s appalling lack of foresight is likely to prove to be an extraordinarily expensive mistake – not just for all the kids who will have to endure leaky, under heated school buildings, but for all of us, not least when money that could have been spent on new classrooms is instead paid out in compensation to a construction industry already facing its most difficult period in recent years.
One of the worst affected parts of the country is my own patch in west London. In Ealing, and the neighbouring boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Hillingdon, every single mainstream rebuilding scheme has been cancelled, with Ealing North Labour MP Steve Pound warning of “Armageddon for both the education and the economy in Ealing”. I can only imagine what newly elected Ealing Central and Acton Conservative MP Angie Bray feels about this apparent betrayal of her constituents – of whom I am one – by her Tory colleague. Repeated attempts to elicit any kind of comment from her office have so far fallen on deaf ears, but with the scrapping of an entire sixth form at Acton High, and reduced primary school capacity amid one of the fastest growing local populations in London, she might wish to find her voice sooner rather than later. In fact, a total of 16 school building projects have been cancelled in Ealing alone. As economies go, this is more than false – it is potentially catastrophic.
There is, however, one local group for whom all of this will make no difference at all. The parents behind the West London Free School, led by journalist Toby Young, who hopes his plans to undermine existing schools in the area will lead not only to a brand new school but to a brand new television series, will doubtless be rubbing their hands with glee at the news that their children at least will not have to add galoshes and an extra thick jumper to the school uniform. It has taken less time than even I would have believed for a direct correlation between “free” schools – free for whom and free of what, exactly? – and the damage they will cause mainstream education to become apparent.
It is not simply the inept manner in which Gove cocked-up this, the first actual decision he was required to make. (Oh, how those politicians who have been targeted by Gove in The Times must have laughed, even those in his own party, who warned he had been over-promoted and far too quickly.) It is the dismissive manner in which he treated both Parliament and the schools affected. It’s amazing how quickly the Tories have reverted to type once back in power.
Of course, it is not just buildings that make a good school. More important still are those who work in them. As Gove struggles to claw back whatever millions this fiasco will cost taxpayers, we can expect further cuts in the curriculum. Perhaps not in the core subjects – maths, English and the sciences – but in those areas that can make such a huge difference to the life chances, and sheer enjoyment that a well-rounded educational experience can make to a child.
I am talking about subjects such as music tuition. As the partner of an instrument teacher, I see first hand the benefits that can be derived from extra-curricular activities such as music, when provided by the local authority. While a relatively small number of students go on to pursue a professional playing career, many more are equipped for life with a skill that not only brings great joy to themselves and to others, but contributes immeasurably to their confidence and social skills and can often make the crucial difference when securing that dreamed-of place at university. Sadly, these kinds of extra curricular activities are often by their very nature unquantifiable, which means that in the past they have been pursued mainly by children from better-off families, for whom a measurable return on their investment is of less immediate concern.
This is to under-appreciate the point, indeed the joy, of an education. To return to the dark days when a well-rounded education was the preserve of the rich and the articulate would represent a catastrophic step in the wrong direction, condemning an entire generation of kids not only to a second-class education, but to a second-class life. It is elitism of the worst possible kind, which is perhaps why we should not be surprised at this premeditated assault on the life-chances of those living in some of England’s most vulnerable communities.
