Education
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Education


WE REJECT WHOLEHEARTEDLY AND COMPLETELY
THE MODERN NOTIONS WHICH HAVE DETERMINED
EDUCATION IN BRITAIN SINCE THE 1960S.




Education in Britain is a disaster. Any government which
pretends otherwise is either lying or so protected by
privilege that they have no idea what life is like for
ordinary people in Britain. The experiments in education
begun in the 1960s under the Labour government of 1966,
and continued by left-wing educationists under successive
governments of both parties have gone a long way to
destroying British society.

So bad is it that  knowledge and culture are now almost
entirely the preserve of the elite. In no area of our society
have the absurd notions of political correctness and other
doctrinal peculiarities taken such a grip and done so much
damage. This party's first priority would be to undo these
disasterous policies and to rebuild education along
traditional lines. We reject wholeheartedly and completely,
the modern notions which have determined education in
Britain since the 1960s.

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS
-BUT WITH NO ENTRANCE  
REQUIREMENTSPARENTS TO CHOSE.

The Labour Party believes in Comprehensive education ,
so called. It has failed. It has failed the people it was
intended most to serve.
We would create a system something like the old one, of
two different types of school. Technical schools and
grammar schools.
The difference would be that parents and  child can chose
which one to go to; there would be NO ENTRANCE
REQUIREMENTS; each catchment area will have to
provide schools of both types, available upon demand to
any parents. A child can switch from one school to
another when it likes, within reason.
In other words there will be two very distinct types of
school and each will be allowed to excel in its chosen
field. But each will be open to any child who wishes to go
there.

The current government has sought to fool the voters by
building policy around targets and statistics, despite the
fact that almost no-one believes them. After failing to
teach people to read, and after lowering literacy
standards even in abler students to risible levels , they
then seek to send 40% of pupils to university to do work
which at the level of the old A levels or lower. They think
this is in the interests of equality, but only a fool would
think that by lowering standards you are helping the
working classes.

SINCE LABOUR ABOLISHED GRAMMAR SCHOOLS IT
IS ONLY THE MIDDLE CLASSES WHO HAVE ACCESS
TO GOOD SCHOOLS

The Labour party abolished grammar schools which were
the means by which working class children got an
education as good as the middle classes. Now it is ONLY
the middle classes who have access to the best schools,
either by paying fees or by buying expensive houses near
to the best schools. Everyone except the government
knows this is how it works. The best state secondary
schools are grammar schools in all but name and the
working classes have no access to them, and there are
far fewer of them than under the grammar system.

SCHOOLS ARE STILL DESIGNED TO SUIT THE
MIDDLE CLASSES

Middle class children in general have an advantage at
school in academic subjects, there is no way of getting
away from it, certainly not by pretending it is not so. Nor is
it helpful to the working classes to destroy academic
achievement in schools as the Labour party helped by
their educationists  has done.
A properly run grammar school system would give an
early opportunity to the most academically able or willing
working class children which they do not get under the
present system. It is a straight choice. The left wing
educationists have signally failed to deliver good schools
where any child can flourish in any area.
All they have created is poor schools where , significantly
, it is working class pupils who fare the worst. The
teaching is so inadequate, largely because the curriculum
is so badly designed, that it is only children who have help
at home , usually the middle classes, who can survive
them at all. But, and this is the final hypocrisy, the schools
are STILL based on the middle class acedemic ethos, and
non- academic working class children are STILL made to
feel like failures or criminals for failing to fit into them.

NOT ALL WORKING CLASS PARENTS WANT SCHOOL
TO BE A MEANS OF BECOMING MIDDLE CLASS
What the middle class left refuse to believe for one
second, is not all working class parents or their children,
want education to be a means of learning from a middle
class curriculum. Most working class people, academically
able or not, are pleased and proud to be working class,
and have no intention of relinquishing their way of life.
To the middle class socialist though, it seems wrong to
deny anyone the "chance" to become middle class, as
they see it. And so they vehemently resist any attempt to
provide a curriculum based on working class subjects,
subjects which would be useful to working class pupils
when they leave school.
They believe that this is wrong, they think it is unfair, they
think the working class way of life is a second class way
of life, the think the working class way of life cannot
contain knowledge or culture of any kind,  and should no
more be available in schools than lessons in ,say, smoking
cigarettes.

WE WOULD PROVIDE WORKING CLASS SCHOOLS

We would provide schools which are designed especially
for working class pupils, of a kind that have never been
available before. ( what in contemporary political cant is
called "vocational training") We reject the notion that the
working classes have no aptitude for knowledge and
learning, and that these are incompatible with proper
training for electricians, plumbers, mechanics, builders;
Nor do we believe that these are inferior subjects for
inferior people, nor do we believe they are less enjoyable
or interesting than literature or history.
Expertise and training in any field is what makes a person
fulfilled; being able and knowledgable in one's chosen field
is what we all want to be. These schools would provide
training in technical subjects of all  kinds to a high level.
They would also entail courses in history and literature,
and in politics, also areas where working class pupils can
be expected to do well, especially in an environment
where they are allowed to feel self-respect for their
abilities in their chosen fields, and where they are free
from the need to conform to middle class expectations.
Grammar schools would also provide courses in technical
subjects.


As a point of principle, any pupil would have the right
to switch from one type of school to another,
whenever they liked.

There would be no entrance requirements for schools; this
means it is not a matter of privilege or advantage or social
origin, but one of choice. Each child, with its parents will
be free to DECIDE which type of school he or she wants
to go to. And if , later on they change their minds they can
switch. The logistical difficulties likely in such a system are
a small price to pay for REAL equality and REAL choice,
in education. What we will ensure is that each area will
have one school of each type, and furthermore that all
schools in all areas are as good as one another. It will be
a real  system of education where state provision will be a
strong equaliser -  each pupil will  get the best education
in the country,  of the kind he or she prefers.



In all subjects, technical and academic, the standards will
be set high rather than low as they are at present. The
dumbing down process will be reversed as it serves no
one. It is immensely condescending to the working
classes to imagine that lowering academic standards in
the country is something that serves their interests , or is
something they want; any more than they want to see
standards in building and mechanics lowered. The highest
achievement in all subjects has to be the aim. Less able
pupils in academic or technical subjects would be given
extra teaching to raise them to the levels of the ablest. .
Naturally extra staff and extra time has to be paid for, for
this to work.
The Working Class Party