If it is GCSE results day, there must be a row about government education policy. True
to form, the NASUWT — a union whose role often appears to be to make the NUT look moderate by comparison — has come out with a comically hyperbolic statement accusing the coalition of a
‘betrayal of young people’ because of its decision to reform the
educational maintenance allowance.
What the NASUWT statement ignores is that the real betrayal of young people has been pushing them into doing courses and qualifications that condemn them to a life of low-skilled labour at best. Last year, only 16 per cent of pupils achieved a C or above in English, Maths, a foreign language, a science and one of history of geography. Amongst those children on free school meals, this figure fell to four per cent.
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