The politics of Tory policies

MANY educators regard the educational changes that have taken place under the Tories as being largely political. Education has become a major political issue since the Thatcher years and will be a major issue in the general election campaign.

Some argue that since most cabinet members send their children to private schools, the government is unqualified to legislate for the state sector and indeed has little commitment to it. Similarly, Whitehall mandarins, who generally come from private school/Oxbridge backgrounds and are equally ill equipped to empathise with the needs of state education.

While Tory attempts to raise standards and introduce assessment and local financial management, are entirely laudable, they say, by failing to supply adequate resources and by encouraging the growth of the private sector, grammar and opt out schools and highlighting failure, they are undermining the system.

"The Conservative government has operated a punishment driven system," observes Dr David Reynolds who is professor of education at Newcastle Upon Tyne University and author of School Effectiveness: Research, Policy and Practice. "The real issue to be addressed is - what do you do with failure? You can't kick it or hack its legs off and this is where the Tories have been deficient." The schools that have been labelled failures by OFSTED, the office for standards in education, should be allocated extra resources and support to tackle their problems, he argues.

A staunch supporter of comprehensive education for more than 20 years, Dr Reynolds says that international research, on which he is currently engaged, shows that a number of countries operate highly selective education systems which are also extremely successful. They operate different provisions for children of different ability levels, "but somehow they achieve parity of esteem".

In highly selective Switzerland, the bottom third of 13 year olds out perform British children of average ability of the same age, he says. But whether in class ridden Britain, selective education can truly work, is another matter.