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EXECUTIVE PRIORITY MOTION (AS
AMENDED) FOR CONFERENCE 2001
Green Paper "Schools: Building on Success"
Conference condemns the denigration of
comprehensive education by the Government and believes the use of such terms as
"bog standard" and "one size fits all" will do nothing but undermine the
successes of pupils, teachers and school communities. It also deplores measures
taken by the Government which lead to the retention and extension of selection
for secondary education and seriously undermine the comprehensive principle.
Conference reaffirms its belief that
equality of opportunity in high quality education can only be achieved through
comprehensive education.
Conference therefore commits the Union
to developing and promoting a vision of education for the 21 st century where:
(i) schools and colleges enjoy full
state funding and are democratically accountable;
(ii) resources are allocated according
to need rather than market forces or 'performance', so as to allow fully
inclusive education and real equality of opportunity for all sections of the
community; and
(iii) learning is based on principles of social
justice rather than misconstrued notions of economic efficiency
Conference believes that the life
chances of millions of young people could not have been enhanced without
attending comprehensive schools.
Conference regrets that the proposals
in the Green Paper will create a two-tier system of secondary education and
rejects such an approach.
Conference welcomes the commitment
made by the Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning in Wales to
comprehensive education and her recognition that it is I working well in Wales'
and is 'here to stay'. Conference rejects the view taken by the Prime Minister
that the Government needs to set out a 'post-comprehensive argument'.
Conference urges the Government to
recognise that comprehensive education has led to massive increases in pupil
staying on rates and public examination successes.
Conference reaffirms its policy that
all forms of overt and covert selection should be abolished and that
comprehensive education should be extended in areas where selection remains. It
calls upon the Government to legislate to end selection in those areas where it
still lingers. It condemns the unnecessary and massive hurdles which have been
placed in the way of those campaigning to end selection and calls upon all
associations, divisions, members and the Union nationally to give full support
to such campaigns."
Conference reaffirms also that,
regardless of any notion of aptitude or ability, all pupils including pupils of
all faiths and those who have none, should have access in every local education
authority to comprehensive education in schools which are staffed by highly
qualified and well-paid teachers.
Conference believes that the proposed
favoured funding for certain categories of schools in the stratified system is
inconsistent with the objective of providing high quality education for all our
children.
Conference believes that the level of
funding available to specialist schools should be available to all. Conference
believes further that such inequities in the current funding system undermine
equality of access rather than enhance parental choice. Conference recognises
that in many areas the concept of parental choice is a chimera, and that the
increased fragmentation and stratification of the school system leads to
schools choosing and excluding students, rather than to any meaningful exercise
of parental choice. Conference urges the Government, therefore, to adopt the
Union's policy for a funding system which funds education equitably and meets
additional educational need.
Conference believes also that the
Government has failed to include proposals for recruiting and retaining
teachers sufficient to tackle the teacher supply crisis.
Conference rejects the Government's
proposal to extend control by the private sector to the management and running
of schools.
Conference welcomes the positive
proposals in the Green Paper, including those for early years, teachers'
professional development and creativity. Conference regrets, however, that such
proposals have been overshadowed by those that will lead to a two-tier system
and a further narrowing of the curriculum through the introduction of new tests
and targets. It deplores the attempt to force some schools to become City
Academies, which are independent selective schools 'owned and run' by private
sponsors who pay a minimal amount to their refurbishment and nothing to their
future running costs. It condemns those local authorities which are prepared to
give away a school and all its assets paid for over the years by their
ratepayers, to see local democratic accountability for the school abolished, to
exclude it from compliance with good educational legislation established to
provide protection for pupils and their community and to deprive its staff of
their legal protection for employment, salaries and conditions of service.
Conference recognises that existing government policies have already had the
effect of narrowing the curriculum and of creating an increasingly alienated
school population.
Conference rejects the imposition by
the Government of new primary school targets which would, as a consequence,
lead to many schools facing unrealistic expectations.
Conference rejects also any
establishment of crude academic and vocational pathways arising from Government
proposals which will result in some schools not designated 'specialist' being
turned into vocational secondary moderns with the sort of narrow curriculum and
social exclusion associated with such schools in the past.. Conference believes
that such pathways do not represent real choices for students but rather a
process of exclusion from the broad and balanced curriculum that is every
student's right.
Conference instructs the Executive,
therefore, to give the, highest priority to publicising the Union's response to
the Green Paper and to publicising and promoting the evidence and arguments for
comprehensive education.
Conference further instructs the Executive to:
(a) 'ensure that the defence and promotion of
comprehensive education is at the centre of the Union's campaigns during and
after the General Election;
(b) combine the Union's statement, "Celebrating
Comprehensive Education' with its response to the Green Paper with the purpose
of setting out the Union's policies and objectives for a new Government.
(c) seek public endorsement for the paper from public
figures, educationalists and
organisations, and to use it as part of the Union's
campaign to resist the
Government's sustained attack on comprehensive
education;
(d) to seek a joint agreement on a statement defending
and promoting comprehensive education with other teacher organisations,
the Trade Union Congress and organizations such as CASE and parent and governor
organisations; and
(e) to organise, wherever possible with other
education unions and campaigning organisations such as
CASE and the SEA, a national conference to publicise
the statement and to promote comprehensive education.
(f) to ensure that resistance to the introduction and
extension of the role of the private sector in managing -educational provision
is equally at the centre of the Union's campaigns. |
