Commenting on Shadow Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson’s speech which outlines Labour’s proposals to ‘get to grips’ with persistent non-attendance, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“We welcome Labour’s commitment to make education its priority if it wins the next election. They will have much damage to repair after over a decade of neglect and underinvestment by this Government.
“We do not yet know the full details of Labour’s response. There is certainly room for further development, in ways that fully appreciate the depth of the crisis in our schools and colleges and make a clean break with 14 years of failure.
“Putting children’s wellbeing at the heart of education means not just greater opportunity for the arts and sport but an end to the exam factory culture. It means lifting the pressure imposed on teachers by a punitive inspection system.
“Designing new curricula around language development, reading, writing and maths means listening to the profession and to a wide range of researchers, not just groups which have shared the ideological preferences of ministers.
“Attending to the material needs of children requires reform of the benefits system, and a guarantee of free school meals for all, as well as the welcome introduction of free breakfast clubs. This academic year, every primary school in London has benefitted from the successful roll out of Free School Meals to all pupils up to Year 6, which has proved beyond doubt the hugely positive impact universal FSM provision has on pupils, parents and their wider community.
“Using artificial intelligence to join up the systems which collect data on children must take account of the risks involved – processes and purposes must be transparent; data must not be exchanged with commercial companies or used for such purposes as control of migration.
“Healing our damaged education system needs to involve rebuilding and resourcing local authorities to have the capacity to support schools. Children’s services have been decimated through austerity and they will need to be painstakingly rebuilt if Labour are to achieve their aims.
“We have a chance in the next couple of years to begin the work of rebuilding our broken education system. Educators are looking to politicians to match their policies to the scale of the problems.”