Politics

7 February 2009

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

Yet David Cameron may succeed, where all the above failed, and this is the single most promising aspect to a prospective Tory government. He would enact the system guaranteeing funding to any new school that will set up and charge less than, say, £7,000 a pupils — or £8,500 in the deprived areas. As Sweden found with its reforms, this is enough: schools come out of the woodwork. Suddenly, the poor have as much choice in education as the rich do.

Crucially, the Tory plan does not stop there. This week Michael Gove and Mr Cameron have been making clear they would give head teachers full control over their budgets. And while the language is coded, the mission is clear: to end collective pay bargaining (the so-called TUPE rules) and allow the best teachers to be paid more and the worst ones to be sacked. As this undermines the wage-fixing role of the unions, they will surely fight these proposals to the death.

The unions are quiet for now, calculating that, having seen off everyone from Margaret Thatcher to Lord Adonis, they can easily deal with what they see as the dilettante Cameroons. But Mr Gove has grasped what eluded his predecessors: trying to reform schools from the centre is futile. The key is to transfer power, through meticulously drafted legislation. That is why the Education Bill in Mr Cameron’s first Queen’s Speech will be nothing short of revolutionary.

The Scottish Parliament, of course, can opt out of any reform. This, along with banning things, is what it has chosen to do since its birth. So if the Tories take Westminster next year then Britain will undergo a massive controlled experiment. England, under Cameron, will endow head teachers with radical new powers and see just what happens when parents become the ‘tsars’. Scotland will stick to the East German model, vesting all power with the bureaucracy. And if the next Tory Prime Minister keeps his nerve it will not be long before we see which system is the best.

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jahdkjahfaskdbf

February 5th, 2009 11:25am Report this comment

I think this is wrong-you left out the motion itself.

Andrew Cadman

February 5th, 2009 4:38pm Report this comment

Excellent article Fraser.

However, I would add that the pernicious nature of collective pay bargaining does not stop there: the Teaching Unions demand that teachers are paid equally regardless of discipline. Hence someone with a good Maths degree who has several well renumerated alternatives to teaching gets paid the same as an art teacher who does not. The result of course, is that very few properly qualified teachers can be found to teach Maths, Physics or IT, particularly at A level. This is a major reason for the decline of science teaching in schools generally.

Chris

February 5th, 2009 6:04pm Report this comment

>The Scottish Parliament, of course, can opt out of any reform.

Nope. The Westminster Parliament can't pass any laws affecting Scottish education. That's why Scottish Reform is on a hiding to nothing. If you think the English teaching unions are powerful, you should live up here. We're screwed, as you go on to note.

Stephen

February 6th, 2009 12:16am Report this comment

I have to laugh at the
'progressive' MSPs who think the way forward is to emulate the failed policies of the old Eastern Bloc countries. It's sickening that politicians - those who disagree with the status quo that is - won't face up to the teaching unions, who ruin the life chances of the most vulnerable kids in order to enforce dogma and protect incompetent teachers.

palepete

February 6th, 2009 1:14pm Report this comment

Fraser is correct. Unfortunately his assessment of Scotland is correct. I left Glasgow with a sigh of relief in 1965. Even then these estates were dreadful - the nation dominated by a gruesome combination of Holy Willy presbyterians and the Glasgow Labour party. Unfortunately the Scotland of my youth has not moved forward - worse - it has inflicted its bizarre views on England for half of the 45 years I have thankfully been residing in England - the most tolerant nation on earth surely to put up with them.

JohnAnt

February 6th, 2009 11:45pm Report this comment

I see that Mary Miller herself, the recipient of the award, appears to be in no doubt of the challenges presented by Castlemilk Estate. She spoke at the award dinner of the 'poverty and deprivation' of the place. She was given the award for her work among the people there and in...Zimbabwe!

Colin Gillies Edinburgh

February 7th, 2009 2:38pm Report this comment

Thank you for highlighting the problems with both the Scottish Parliament and the scottish educational system. I was one of the lucky people who went to what was one of the last of the senior secondaries in Edinburgh when the examination system produced pupils who were as good if not better than privately educated students. The problem on these estates is that even if the senior secondaries were resurrected is that many of the people living on them would not care what kind of education their children have.

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