Amid the clamour over Brexit and immigration, some issues have not been given the attention they deserve in this election. Among them, arguably, is education.
Today, head teachers in York put that right.
In a blistering attack on Theresa May’s education proposals, they described her plans for new grammar schools as a ‘red herring and a side show’.
York High head teacher David Ellis, speaking on behalf of York’s secondary head teachers’ group, said Mrs May’s plans completely overlooked the greatest crisis facing schools: lack of funding.
Outlining her proposals for new grammars earlier this year, Mrs May argued they would make it possible to build a ‘Great Meritocracy’ where bright children from ordinary working families were given the chance to get the kind of first class school education young people from richer families took for granted.
But this suggested bright students weren’t already doing well at school, Mr Ellis said. In York at least, there was no evidence that was so, he said.
“York is one of the highest performing authorities at GCSE and A -Level and there is no evidence of need for this change (to grammars)”, he said.
The real crisis facing York schools was the lack of funding, he said. “In nearly every school in the city class sizes are rising and the number of teachers...is being reduced.” This was affecting children from disadvantaged backgrounds, he claimed.
“If Theresa May is serious about wanting to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds the biggest single thing we can do is get them into smaller classes,” he said.
Mr Ellis is surely right. It doesn’t matter what names we give to our schools. The key thing is that they are properly funded, so that children get the quality teacher time they need and deserve.
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