5) Choice and Disadvantage

Another report, another apparent blow to the Government’s schooling program http://education.guardian.co.uk/newschools/story/0,,2210064,00.html. The full report is to found at http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/files/12803.pdf . While the government feigned disappointment at these findings, in truth, I think they will find it useful, as they continue to try to re-orient government policy towards a more directly interventionist program of support for disadvantaged students. I would combine this review with the new HEFCE targets and policy. There is a feeling in government that policies to address educational disadvantage have not been sharp enough, not positive enough. However, this will inevitably raise the old problem of whether it is appropriate to limit the choices of the non-disadvantaged, in order to aid the disadvantaged. It’s the old problem; did the existence of high quality grammar schools also produce low quality secondary moderns?

The old Blairite educational team, which this government has inherited, is a delicate alliance, united in little, beyond a belief in meritocracy and finding a ‘third way’ to improving opportunities for the disadvantaged without restricting the choices of others. The key political question for the next period is how much will the old Thatcherites and Social Democrats, who make up the rump of the education team, stand for any restriction of choice in the education system. Their commitment was always to creating opportunities for the disadvantaged, while not restricting the choices of others; indeed for them, choice was the key to improvement and opportunity for all. This thin basis for unity may in part explain the routine blaming of bad teachers and teacher training for any bad news in the education system. It is a therapeutic howl, first developed by the ‘black papers’ lobby in the 1970s, and vented ever since, by both labour and conservative politicians alike. Like a football chant, it seems to have more to do with reinforcing group solidarity rather than being a factual description and analysis of the world. However, I doubt whether this shared chant will be enough to hold them together. I think for many of New Labour’s new found friends, any restrictions on student and parental choice would be the end of the affair. Expect to see sparks over A levels and Academies.