Education for Tomorrow 124

EDUCATION for TOMORROW DEFEND STATE EDUCATION!

Burston – an extra special relevance in 2015 Infected by the GERM: Baseline testing Exam factories Finland and an education system that works well for all The fight against academy conversion Book reviews International news

AUTUMN 2015

ISSUE 124 1

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Editorial Board Anne Brown, Martin Brown, Tony Farsky, Gawain Little, Diane Randall, Hank Roberts, Simon Watson, EDUCATION for TOMORROW is produced by people involved with education of like mind most of the time and certainly on all vital matters of education and politics.

It does not claim to represent the views of any one political party of the working class. Nonetheless its aim is at all times to speak in the interests of all working people.

Fully involved in the struggle for peace and socialism it aims to publicise workers’ achievements and to counter misinformation about past and existing struggles to build socialism.

It is to promote the aims of the organised labour movement in Britain; with common schooling for ALL our children (i.e. a good local state school for every child - truly comprehensive and democratically accountable) together with everything necessary to make this possible, in terms of provision of buildings and equipment, and staff properly trained and properly paid. We therefore support the campaign for one union for all education workers as a step towards achieving this goal.

Our columns are open to all who share these aims - even though they may at times disagree with particular articles and want to say so, and why!

Posted individual copies cost £2

Contents Editorial - 3 Baseline testing - 4 Exam factories - 6 Finnish education & the OAJ- 8

ISSN 2066-9145

Website: www.educationfortomorrow.org.uk

Anti Academies alliance news - 11

Published and printed by the EDUCATION for TOMORROW Collective

Book reviews - 12 International - 14

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The Burston Rally – an extra special relevance this year .

Education for Tomorrow has had a presence at the Burston Strike School Rally for many years. For educators and trade unionists what better way could there be to celebrate the start of a new school year than by attending the rally? In celebrating the history of our class we commemorate a struggle that demonstrated organising ability, tenacity and stamina. Twenty-five years is a long time!

It was a struggle that exposed the true nature of pre-First World War village life – a struggle between oppressor and oppressed that continues to this day even when that struggle is hidden or denied. The Higdons’ effective challenge to the established order was the reason for their persecution. The solidarity action in their defence that was initiated by the school children themselves, led by the 13 year-old Violet Potter, is an example of the way that an organised response to injustice can catch the imagination of the labour movement and take the establishment by surprise.

The campaign to get Jeremy Corbyn elected as Labour leader is another example of the establishment being taken by surprise. Like the Tories, the right wing of the Labour Party are so completely out of touch with the real mood of anger in society that they assumed that allowing anyone to register and vote would work in their favour.

Those who have supported war, Trident renewal, student tuition fees, privatisation, the undermining of local democracy and breaking the link with the unions now claim that the thousands of workers and young people who are signing up to vote for an anti-austerity candidate with an exemplary record of fighting for peace and social justice don’t ‘share Labour’s values’.

As Mark Steel, socialist, comedian, journalist and Labour ‘reject’ , commented: ‘It’s easy to see why those in charge of the Labour Party are so depressed. They must sit in their office crying: “Hundreds of thousands of people want to join us. It’s a disaster. And loads of them are young, and full of energy, and they’re really enthusiastic. Oh my God, why has it all gone so miserably wrong?”

It’s not just the young who are joining. Tens of thousands of disillusioned former members and supporters are signing up to support his leadership bid. Issues are being brought out into the open that the establishment thought were dead and buried. Tony Benn was fond of saying that public opinion was well to the left of the Labour Party. The success of the Corbyn leadership campaign so far supports that view.

Views that have been suppressed for decades by a millionaire controlled media, and anger with Tory austerity, have found a voice at last. The modest proposals put forward in the campaign have huge popular support.

Publicly owned rail (supported by 73 per cent of UKIP supporters in a recent poll and a majority of Tory supporters) and energy, no more illegal wars and scrapping Trident, abolition of student tuition fees, and end to the privatisation of the NHS are just some of the ideas that have become mainstream once again. He supports a strengthening of local education authorities. The ‘Overton Window’ has shifted and ideas that were ignored or dismissed as extremist, impossible, dangerous are being discussed once again. The claim that Labour would be unelectable with Jeremy Corbyn as leader denies reality.

His leadership rivals have had to concede his success and don’t understand why one honest man in a mass of corruption, personal ambition and opportunism has such a big appeal to so many ordinary working people. His rivals have themselves enhanced his status by their own conduct. Efforts to persuade one or two of them to drop out to allow the right wing vote to centre on just one of them have failed. All three have put their own ambition ahead of the principles they claim to uphold.

Unlike his rivals, Corbyn makes it clear that he is part of a collective and that the campaign is not about him as an individual, but about the labour movement as a whole. Some policies reflect the confusion that exists within the movement – over the European Union for example – but like the villagers of Burston over a century ago, we have the chance to fight back.

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Letter

Infected by the Germ: Baseline Testing Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts Globally, education is under assault from governments and multi-national corporations who see it as a legitimate and lucrative business opportunity with an estimated market value of $4.4tn or more.

This assault, termed by Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg 'the Global Education Reform Movement' or GERM, has created a model of education that puts profit before pupils while masquerading as the saviour of education for all. It claims competition between students, teachers and schools drives up standards and that ‘testing’ is the only way schools can be accountable to parents and taxpayers. A worldwide movement, it is reducing education to what can be measured and made profitable.

The drive to improve results has resulted in almost constant testing of our children with ‘practice’ tests a routine feature of the UK school experience. This means less time for learning and discovery and an inevitable narrowing of what children learn as they are taught to the test.

Now, the government wants children starting in Reception to be ‘assessed’ using one of six possible tests (chosen by the school) to give them a baseline level in English & numeracy.

Within the first six weeks of starting school, each child will sit with a teacher for a 15-30 minute test and answer questions to establish their ‘ability’.

This data will then be used to project progress targets for the child at Key Stages 2, 3, 4 and beyond. Typically, such data is not treated as aspirational but is instead translated into ‘Target Minimum Grades’: not a guide then but an expectation.

Parents should be concerned at the increased push to formalise learning for very young children when good practice in other countries sees formal schooling start as late as seven. There are those

I am making this appeal as one who has read Education for Tomorrow since its first appearance 31 years ago. The journal has exposed the attacks on teachers and education at all levels – international, national and local.

It has linked what has happened in education to the wider struggles of working people but too few have the opportunity to read it. A big increase in circulation is required. The editorial board has limited resources. You the READERS can assist in building the circulation with little or no expenditure.

Talk to your contacts and colleagues near and far. The annual subscription of £7 for the paper copy is far less than the cost of production, and the annual on-line subscription is just £4.

Good luck, and let the editor know your experience.

A Reader, London 4

who say these tests won’t harm the children and that the psychological impact is over-played. There is much evidence and expertise in the field that suggests otherwise but time will tell.

The government argues that this assessment will give a clear picture of every child’s ability as they start school. Such an assertion assumes several things. It assumes the data from the tests is reliable.

But how can this data be reliable when we will be testing children of significantly different ages (a potential difference of 11 months)? How can it be reliable when schools are choosing which test to use from six different commercial providers? How can the results of a test from one provider be moderated with those from another?

It also assumes that teachers don’t already gather useful information on a child’s ability and development. They do. Teachers use the comprehensive EYFS profile document which covers 17 areas of development as opposed to just English and numeracy. Then there is the assumption that assessment need only cover literacy & numeracy and that such an assessment is a good predictor of ability or progress across all disciplines or skills The government also suggests that this assessment will reduce workload for teachers (even though many teachers are being told they need to do both the EYFS and the Baseline test). But even proposing the replacement of the EYFS profile with a one-off test is a cynical ploy. It may appear to reduce workload, but it will bring with it a whole new set of problems.

What if your students don’t make the ‘expected progress’? Already, under PRP, teachers have to justify progress to maintain or improve their pay or prove their competency. Now, this data will be used to challenge all teachers, across a child’s entire school life, on their progress. It will be used to hold teachers’ pay down. No account will be taken of other contributory factors. There can be no ‘excuses’ for failure.

This test is being ‘trialled’ from September 2015 and will be ‘optional’ from 2016 so it looks like schools have a choice. However, all primary schools are judged on their performance at the end of Key Stage 2. Schools using the baseline test will need to show that ‘pupils make sufficient progress’ from their starting point.

Schools who choose not to use the test will have to meet an ‘attainment floor target’ of 85 per cent (compared to 65 per cent now). Schools who fail will be forced to become sponsored academies.

The truth is, the industrial scale of testing which is becoming the norm in our schools, does not benefit students. The government is quite clear that these tests are about assessing ‘school effectiveness’. More and more, teachers are under pressure to teach a ‘pre-determined content domain’ which means that students are only taught what is prescribed. Any idea we once had of learning being a journey of discovery is under serious attack.

The GERM is not interested in schools because it cares about children. It sees schools as a potential for profit and teachers and their unions are a huge obstacle to its plans. Our job as activists is to make sure parents and communities understand that testing and accountability is a smoke-screen for privatisation; that attacks on teachers’ pay and conditions are not about dealing with failure but about ridding schools of challenging and expensive pedagogy; that not everything worth learning can be measured in a test; and that instead of giving them more say in their child’s future they are handing over their learning to what pleases the market.

The National Union of Teachers has committed itself to campaigning against these tests within the UK but also building campaigns with teacher unions from other countries against global providers like Pearson. In light of the election result we are going to have to redouble our efforts. We need to talk to parents about our concerns but also about the broader question of what education is for and the kinds of schools our children deserve. The imposition of these tests goes way beyond the question of how we measure a child’s progress. It questions the very nature of what kind of education we want for our society.

Kiri Tunks National Executive, National Union of Teachers (This article first appeared in Counterfire)

Further reading: GERM that kills schools, Pasi Sahlberg, June 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=TdgS--9Zg_0 Early Years Education – NUT Edufacts http:// www.teachers.org.uk/edufacts/early-years

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Exam Factories Exam Factories, published by the National Union of Teachers, examines the impact of accountability on children and young people. The study was conducted independently by Emeritus Professor Merryn Hutchins of London Metropolitan University.

The wide ranging research project incorporates a survey of almost 8,000 teachers, an extensive literature review and quantitive research utilising case studies of both heads and teachers (not all of whom were NUT members) and children.

This report presents the findings of research commissioned by the NUT which aimed to explore the impact on children and young people in England of the current range of accountability measures in schools, including Ofsted inspections, floor standards, and the whole range of measures published in the school performance tables (attainment, pupil progress, attainment gaps, etc.). It draws together findings from previous research together with new data from an online survey and interviews with staff and pupils in seven case study schools across the country.

the test. Test scores do not necessarily represent pupils’ overall level of understanding and knowledge, but rather the fact that teachers are focusing their teaching very strongly on preparing pupils for the test.

4. There is no evidence as yet that accountability measures can reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.

There is evidence that disadvantaged children, who on average have lower attainment than their peers and are therefore under greater pressure to meet targets, can become disaffected as a result of experiencing ‘failure’, and this is being exacerbated by recent changes to the curriculum to make it more demanding and challenging. Research has shown that schools are responsible for only a small proportion of the variance in attainment between pupils – their lives outside school are the main influence. It is therefore unreasonable to expect schools alone to close the gap.

5. Pupil Premium funding, allocated to schools to support disadvantaged children, is effective in highlighting the needs of this group, but has also had perverse effects. In some schools it has resulted in less attention being paid to the needs of other individuals or groups; in particular, in some schools, support for those children with special educational needs has been reduced. The need to evidence the way the Pupil Premium has been used has in some cases resulted in explicit labelling of pupils and young people, and services providing education and skills for learners of all ages.

Findings 1. The accountability measure arousing the greatest concern among school leaders and teachers is Ofsted. Ofsted was described as ‘punitive’, reflecting both the potential consequences of ‘failure’ (academisation, loss of jobs, public disgrace) and some inspectors’ combative attitudes. Ofsted was also described as ‘random’ reflecting the variation between teams of inspectors and the way they use the very wide range of school attainment data.

2. The strategies that schools adopt in relation to accountability measures include: scrutiny of all aspects of teachers’ work; requirements for greater uniformity of practice; collection and use of data to target individual pupils; an increased focus on maths/numeracy and English/literacy (and in secondary schools, on other academic subjects e.g. history, geography, science, languages); and additional teaching of targeted pupils. Many of these strategies were more frequently reported in schools with poor Ofsted grades, below average attainment and high proportions of disadvantaged pupils.

3. One aim of accountability measures is to improve attainment. There is evidence that high stakes testing results in an improvement in test scores because teachers focus their teaching very closely on

Disaffection 6. Accountability measures have previously had the perverse effect of encouraging schools to enter pupils for vocational examinations. This has now been reversed, and schools are encouraged to enter pupils for academic examinations, regardless of their needs, aptitudes or interests. This is contributing to disaffection and poor behaviour among some pupils. These effects have been exacerbated by changes to the curriculum, making it more demanding; and by changes to the exam system, including the scrapping of coursework and the switch to linear exams.

7. Accountability measures have achieved government aims of bringing about an increased focus on English/literacy and mathematics/ numeracy and (in secondary schools) other academic 6

subjects; however, this has been achieved at the cost of narrowing the curriculum that pupils experience.

The narrowing of the curriculum is greater for year groups taking tests/exams, pupils with low attainment, disadvantaged pupils and those with special needs.

14. Children and young people are suffering from increasingly high levels of school-related anxiety and stress, disaffection and mental health problems. This is caused by increased pressure from tests/exams; greater awareness at younger ages of their own ‘failure’; and the increased rigour and academic demands of the curriculum. The increase in diagnosis of ADHD has been shown to be linked to the increase in high stakes testing. Thus it appears that some children are being diagnosed and medicated because the school environment has become less suitable for them, allowing less movement and practical work, and requiring them to sit still for long periods.

15. Increasingly, children and young people see the main purpose of schooling as gaining qualifications, because this is what schools focus on.

This trend has been widely deplored, including by universities and employers, who have argued that the current exam system does not prepare children for life beyond school. They have highlighted a range of other desirable outcomes of schooling, such as independent, creative and divergent thinking; ability to collaborate; and so on.

16. While accountability measures have a negative impact on all pupils, many of them disproportionately affect disadvantaged and SEND pupils. One reason for this is that many of them struggle to reach age-related expectations, and therefore often spend more time being taught maths and English (and consequently miss out on some other subjects). Some special school teachers argued that their pupils need to develop life skills rather than focus on literacy and numeracy.

17. A second reason for the disproportionate impact on disadvantaged pupils is that Ofsted grades are strongly related to the proportion of disadvantaged pupils in a school (schools with high proportions of disadvantaged children are more likely to have poor Ofsted grades). This research has shown that schools with low Ofsted grades are more likely to use strategies such as scrutiny of teachers’ work, which increases pressure on teachers, and which is often passed on to pupils.

18. Current accountability measures also militate against inclusion. Findings reflected previous research in showing that Ofsted’s approach is making some schools reluctant to take on pupils who are likely to lower the school attainment figures. The effective work that some schools do in relation to inclusion (particularly work to support pupils socially and emotionally) is also disregarded by Ofsted if it has not resulted in satisfactory attainment figures.

Inappropriate 8. The current pattern of testing very young children is inappropriate to their developmental level and needs, and creates unnecessary stress and anxiety for pupils and parents. Pupils of every age are increasingly being required to learn things for which they are not ready, and this leads to shallow learning for the test, rather than in-depth understanding which could form a sound basis for future learning.

9. The amount of time spent on creative teaching, investigation, play, practical work etc. has reduced considerably, and lessons more often have a standard format. This results from pressure to prepare pupils for tests and to cover the curriculum; teachers’ perceptions of what Ofsted want to see (both in lessons, and in terms of written evidence in pupils’ books); and teachers’ excessive work levels.

Both primary and secondary pupils said that they learned more effectively in active and creative lessons, because they were memorable.

10. The use of Key Stage 2 test scores to determine target grades at GCSE is deeply problematic, both because, in secondary teachers’ experience, the test results do not give a realistic picture of children’s levels of knowledge and understanding; and because they are based on test scores in English and maths, which do not represent potential in subjects such as foreign languages, art or music.

11. Accountability measures have a substantial impact on teachers. In all types of school, their workload is excessive and many suffer considerable stress as a result of the accountability strategies used in their schools. Some teachers are under unreasonable pressure to meet targets related to pupil attainment. The impact of accountability measures on teachers is not the main focus of this research, but is included because it inevitably impacts on pupils.

12. The current emphasis, in inspections, on pupils’ books and written feedback to pupils is adding considerably to teachers’ workloads and stress, and is not providing proportionate benefits for pupils.

13. Some teachers reported that the combination of pressure to improve test/exam outcomes, and their own increased workload and stress, had reduced the quality of their relationships with their pupils.

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We can afford an education system that works well for all – and Finland shows us how It was my privilege to be part of an Assocition of Teachers and Lecturers delegation to Finland led

by ATL President, Mark Baker. We visited for four days during April. We went obviously to learn about Finland’s education system and lessons for us from it, but in particular we went to study the Finnish education union the OAJ1 and to learn the history of its building into a single union that represents the whole of education. This is my personal report but I can say that the other three members of the delegation were also massively impressed by Finland’s education system and in particular by the strength and influence of the OAJ in achieving their justly praised education system.

Having Government support to enable owner occupation means that ‘over 70 per cent of dwellings are owner-occupied. Over 60 per cent of rental dwellings are directly or indirectly owned by municipalities while the vast majority of the rest are owned by non-profit organisations’.

Context

Nutrition:

The right to roam: Another example illustrative of this country is that it has a better balance than ours between ordinary people’s rights and property rights of the rich. It’s called ‘Everyman’s Right’ ‘which allows free access to land and waterways, regardless of who owns the land4’. In Britain, excepting right of way, it is normally a criminal offence.

Finland is a small country – a population of 5.5 million, less than the total population of London.

But it’s big on progressive ideas and in its population having some serious influence and element of control over what happens in their country. It is a far more equal country than ours, not surprising, given Britain’s remarkable backwards trajectory of the last three and a half decades, leading to the UK being the most unequal country in Europe 2 Here’s just a small list of some of the practices in Finland 3 that highlight reasons how and why our situations are so different.

This sets part of the societal scene for its educational system. A first requirement for the satisfactory education of children is satisfactory nutrition. ‘Every pupil in compulsory education has been provided with a free school meal every school day since 1948’ i.e. for the last 67 years!

Libraries: Finns are world record library users. The average Finn5 borrows more than twenty books per year.

The libraries are flourishing and have expanded into areas way beyond book lending. By contrast, in Brent, London, where I live, like so many other libraries which have had to be closed due to government cuts in local authority funding, my local library, opened by Mark Twain in 1900, was closed. It’s planned to reopen but to be run and

Tax: ‘For instance, information about what people have paid in taxes, along with their taxable income is in the public domain, and information always ends up in the tabloids.’

Housing: 1Read

more about the OAJ (Opetusalan Ammattijärjestö) in an article written by Ritva Semi, OAJ Special advisor in EfT Issue 120 Autumn 2014 2 Human Development Report’ United Nations July 2015 3Taken from ‘100 Social Innovations from Finland’ edited by Ilkka Taipale, published 2014. See also www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrUEXWvUPkw 4 Excepting gardens and fields 5 ‘Finnish homes contain significantly more books on average than other European homes’

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funded by volunteers! Finnish libraries are run by highly educated professionals.

You want those smart working-class kids to be teachers. And, actually, the UK spends more but achieves less. The trick is to select the best possible students and fund them instead of using a hell of a lot of effort to train those who aren’t so good and don’t have the potential.’

Not surprisingly, they do not suffer the waste of money and resources of our education, where 40 per cent of teachers leave the profession after just five years of teaching 8. It is no surprise that this level of accomplishment of the Finnish people is accompanied by a high level of union organisation – over 70 per cent, one considerably higher than in the UK which is around 25 per cent.

As reported previously in EfT9 , last year a delegation led by NUT ex-President Beth Davies visited Finland to find out about why their education system was so successful. They produced a report, Lessons from Finland - and how we might apply them in Britain.

In Beth’s foreword she wrote, ‘Imagine working in an education system where there is no fear of inspections, where the interpretation of the curriculum is entrusted to you, where assessment is used to inform children’s learning only (not to judge your performance and determine your future pay) and where you are highly respected and work in an environment of trust; where the school day is much shorter and where childcare and early childhood education is guaranteed for all children.

Imagine a system where reform, such as a curriculum review, is driven by collaboration with educators, politicians and unions with one objective in mind, to place the child at the heart of the process; where the curriculum is not overloaded, it is broad based and where teachers teach less and children spend less time studying. We came to the conclusion that less is more.’

In a postscript entitled ‘Reflections on the Finnish Education System’ Robin Head, Vice Chair NUT Education and Equalities Committee writes, ‘Class size too played a huge role. There are no laws on this in Finland but no-one would expect to see classes of over 25 as it is regarded as not conducive to learning . . .The notion of school league tables is abhorrent . . .One union (the OAJ) makes for a

Their Education System All Finnish schools are comprehensive.

All teachers have to have a master’s degree. There are no national tests upon completing basic education and schools are not publicly graded. Teachers rely on national guidelines when they evaluate pupils at the end of their basic education. All education, including further and higher education, is free. No need to get thirty thousand pounds or more in debt as in the UK6 to get your degree.

In the book The Almost Nearly Perfect People7

by Michael Booth, he quotes Prof Patrik Scheinin, Dean of the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences at the University of Helsinki, (the department charged with fine tuning the Finns’ human development and learning).

‘The most striking aspect of Finland’s performance, beyond its general, all round excellence, is the fact that the success is spread evenly among all of its schools: it is the country with the least amount of performance variance between schools: there is just four per cent difference in performance between the best of them, and the worst. Other high achievers – the tigerMum countries like Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong – stream off the highest achieving students into special hothouse schools; they boast low levels of variation within schools but, when you compare performance between schools, particularly in different parts of the country, the disparities are great.’

‘The secret’, he says, ‘is a rigorously enforced, consistent curriculum, with children who fall behind given one-to-one tutoring (around a third of Finnish schoolkids get this extra help each year).’

‘In Finland teacher training courses can be more difficult to get on to than those in law and medicine.

They are routinely oversubscribed by a factor of ten, sometimes much more. At the University of Helsinki a couple of years ago they had 2,400 applications for the 120 places on the master’s programme. Ever since 1970, all Finnish teachers have been required to study to master’s level with state support.

6

Except in Scotland where it is still free Published by Vintage Books, 2015 8 ATL survey March 2015 9 See EfT Number 121 Winter 2014 edition 7

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much broader approach for the profession to make its stance accessible. There is no opportunity for the divide and rule tactics we see in Britain or the drive to appeal to different sectors or mind sets of staff.

One union. One voice. Cohesive approach to negotiations.’

The full report is available at http:// www.teachers.org.uk/educationandequalities/ finland

control and teacher accountability was the key to education success11 , the English system would be fantastic. Gove changed the system so that he could, and did, control it as Secretary of State and could make changes to the system personally.

Before the landmark Education Reform Act of 1988 the Secretary of State had three direct powers: managing the number of teachers, opening and closing schools and removing air raid shelters from playgrounds. Now the number of powers is over 2000. Gove personally allocated himself around fifty new powers when in office. Localism is preached but centralism almost to the point of dictatorship is practised. This will continue and probably get worse under this new Government.

And the accountability system of Ofsted is the bane of the profession and it is virtually universally loathed with schools subject to its rule of terror, and evermore schools being forced to become academies, exposing totally the hypocrisy of their parental choice agenda. No, our system has not had its control decentralised. Local authorities have fewer and fewer powers and responsibilities.

The Secretary of State has more and more, and teachers have less and less autonomy. Schools are more hierarchical not less. How Sahlgren and the Centre for Policy Studies can claim that this centralisation of power is good for education, I don’t know.

In the forward Sahlgren writes, ‘Perhaps most remarkable was the fact that Finland was seemingly able to achieve the excellent results without resorting to the draconian education model that has been the trademark of East Asia. Similarly, it also appeared to have spurned many of the market and accountability reforms undertaken by its Scandinavian neighbours, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. All this made Finland an especially attractive model for opponents of some major trends in education policy worldwide.’

The OAJ Our delegation was sent, in particular, to look at the OAJ. It is the only negotiating body for teachers and lecturers. A process of professional unity began in the 1970s in the bringing together, over time, of many small unions – driven by the need for a stronger voice across a disparate group.

Government could not and would not engage with or give due regard to so many separate organisations. They now have one strong voice with Government. They are acknowledged by politicians as the obvious choice for professional advice.

It is no surprise that the proponents of the neoliberal globalized privatisation of education have attacked the Finnish system. Real Finnish Lessons10 - the true story of an education superpower by Gabriel Heller Sahlgren and published by the rightwing think tank the Centre for Policy Studies, April 2015, is an example.

The subtitle the true story of an education superpower is a clear indication that the author does not have the temerity to deny the achievement of education in Finland. His arguments come down to their ‘unique history’ as a country (which country doesn’t have?), ‘not least via the high social status and quality of teachers.’ (!) This is what all UK teacher unions and progressive educational pressure groups say should happen, and would improve education. What is the policy of the Conservative government which the Centre for Policy Studies and neo-liberals support? End the requirement for teachers to be qualified! How will that improve education?

Sahlgren argues that traditionally Finnish education was centralised and had little autonomy and teachers were highly accountable and it was the benefits of this, and traditional teaching as they worked their way through, that led to better results and is now coming to an end due to, in essence, the woolly liberal leftist take over. If centralisation of

The use of ‘the draconian education model that has been the trademark of East Asia’ may well be able to achieve better results in exams. As rote learning

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This title is a take-off of the book ‘Finnish Lessons. What can the world learn from educational change in Finland’ (Teachers College Press, Columbia University 2012) by Pasi Sahlberg. This is an excellent book. Sahlgren’s report fails in his self-appointed task of disproving the evidence based contentions of his target.

11 At least for the masses. Private schools for the 7% are a different matter.

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and teaching to the test did in Victorian times.

Never mind understanding though. And never mind a childhood. Dickens wrote about what this led to through his characterisation of Mr Gradgrind and Mr. M'Choakumchild in Hard Times.

The lack of creativity has been recognised as a serious problem in this system, not to mention the number of child suicides. No, if we are to import a model, or even learn from it, the Chinese12 model is certainly not preferable to the Finnish. He is correct that Finland’s spurning of market and accountability reforms undertaken by its Scandinavian neighbours and the UK does make it an attractive model for opponents of some major trends in education policy worldwide. The major trend is of course that espoused by GERM, the Global Education Reform Movement. It is that of privatisation and the running of state education systems for profit.

Their strategy and aims are well set out in The Profit Motive in Education: Continuing the Revolution. (I think it should be counter revolution) Published by the Institute for Economic Affairs, 2012.

In it, numerous authors argue that state education could and should be run for profit.

Among them is Tom Vander Ark, managing partner to Learn Capital and Executive Director of Education for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Toby Young who set up the first free school, to sign a funding agreement with the Secretary of State Michael Gove and who writes of his disappointment that free schools cannot be run for profit (yet!).

Finland is not utopia. It is coming under huge pressure from the forces of neoliberalism, globalisation and the EU which it joined, to adopt more market-led economic and social policies. But the country and its non-market education system is hugely better than ours which, under this Government, is heading down the unfettered market and for profit route faster than ever. Only we, the teachers, parents and general population can stop it. As we sow, so shall we reap. Well done Finns! Yes indeed we can learn from you.

Democracy under attack The Education & Adoption Bill is making its way through Parliament. Key features of the bill include the forced academisation of coasting schools, the silencing of parental objections and an obligation on councillors and governors to accept the academy ‘solution’ even if they believe it is not in children’s best interests.

This outrageous attack on democracy was the subject of an Anti Academies Alliance meeting held in parliament late last June. Even the most seasoned campaigners at the meeting were shocked by the analysis of DfE data presented by Henry Stewart of the Local Schools Network. The data showed that disadvantaged children in secondary academies attain less well than their peers in maintained schools. Henry had also analysed Ofsted results which showed that sponsored academies are twice as likely to retain the Ofsted judgement of inadequate, or to become inadequate, than maintained schools.

As well as Green MP Caroline Lucas (Brighton Pavilion), two newly elected Labour MPs spoke at the meeting: Catherine West MP (Hornsey & Wood Green) and Clive Lewis MP (Norwich South and newly appointed patron of the AAA).

Clive, whose constituents continue to fight the takeover of Hewett School by the Inspiration Trust, had used his maiden speech two weeks earlier to defend community education against the dominance of the Inspiration Trust chain in Norfolk. Catherine West spoke passionately about the current crises in education: vicious cuts to Further Education; Sure Start Centres closing up and down the country; schools finding it near impossible to recruit or retain teachers – none of which are addressed by this bill. Caroline Lucas, a long time supporter of the successful Hove Park anti-academy campaign, concluded that: ‘We need a road show to let parents and the public know that there is no case – becoming an academy does not improve children’s education’.

Alasdair Smith, National Secretary of the AAA, summed up: ‘We have won the argument: becoming an academy does not lead to school improvement. We need to keep exposing the lie

Hank Roberts ATL Past National President, in a personal capacity.

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This has recently be re-emphasised by the TV series where a Chinese model had been taught by Chinese teachers (with excellent language skills) to English pupils with not exactly outstanding results.

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that academisation has anything at all to do with school improvement. This bill rides roughshod over parents, councillors, governors, teachers and support staff. It needs to be vehemently opposed.

We all must unite, across the political spectrum, to expose this government’s intentions to marketise and privatise our education system.’

A world to build – new paths to twenty-first century socialism

Education ministers get their sums wrong - again

Marta Harnecker, Monthly Review Press, 2015.

The DfE has had a ticking off for its creative use of statistics and not for the first time. Ministers had claimed that primary sponsored academies had seen their reading, writing and maths results improve at double the rate of local authority schools. Ministers had been comparing primary sponsored academies with all primaries rather than those with similar test results. In fact, non-academy primary schools, starting with the same 2013 test results, actually registered faster improvements than the sponsored primary academies. The Guardian’s Warwick Mansell reported that the UK Statistics Authority had advised that the DfE should in future state that the data, as presented, could not be used – by ministers and others – to imply a ‘causal link’ between academy status and improvements in test results. You can read more on this from Henry Stewart at the Local Schools Network.

Swept under the carpet?

www.monthlyreview.org

Disturbing claims reach us from South London where a whistleblower from a Harris Federation sponsored academy tells of teachers shipped in and children shipped out during a recent Ofsted inspection. They add that the turnover of staff is worryingly high. We printed the response from Harris Federation, founded by carpet magnate Lord Harris of Peckham, in full on our website. Over the years we’ve received many allegations about this chain in particular, and the common themes suggest to us that the whistleblowers are genuine. But they are also genuinely in fear of their employers. It may also be worth noting that last year there were allegations of ‘off rolling’ pupils at Harris Academy South Norwood – all to keep the data looking good.

After yet another weekend of marking and preparation, the thought ‘why am I doing this?’ cannot be that far from many teachers’ minds.

The systematic harassment and undermining of education workers has sapped morale and undermined teachers’ capacity to resist the current ideological attacks on education, by the Tories guided in turn by the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM).

But answering that question is also what inspires so many teachers to be called to the profession in the first place. Having space to deliver lessons which educate and develop the whole child – beyond the mechanistic requirement to pass tests – is not easy. So keeping a vision of the role that the child could perform in society is vital.

The ‘left turn’ in many Latin American countries has led practice to outstrip theory in moving towards a ‘Twenty-First Century Socialism’. There is a new reservoir of experience of how to exercise collective power, the role 12

individuals play, and the transformational change this has on individuals.

Marta Harnecker’s new book A World to Build, winner of Venezuela’s ‘Liberator’s prize for Critical Thought’ and translated into English this year, is a window into this. It draws together common threads of how similar processes in Latin America, which took different forms depending on the country, have led to a progressive block of nations.

Whilst in Europe 1989 might be remembered for the fall of the Berlin Wall, nine months before this in Venezuela one of the first major revolts against IMF-imposed neo-liberal policies – ‘El Caracaco’ – was happening. In Chile the popular movement was led by the Maphche people defending their lands and the student movement – the penguin rebellion – for better public education not geared towards profit making. In Bolivia the ‘Water War’ against privatisation was the popular rebellion that set the precedent for other movements.

In different ways in different countries, popular movements proved the vitality of a broad coalition of forces, from different traditions and political practices, being brought together by focussing on specific immediate issues. At their heart, the movements are founded on local democracy, participation, and transparency. At the same time, bourgeois liberal democracy was suffering a crisis of prestige.

Skip forward a decade when these embryonic explosions of resistance led to new leftwing governments. These are not merely from electoral parties, but tightly bound to mass movements, and influenced by the ideas of full integral human development; understanding that people are social beings; removing the divide between manual and intellectual labour; environmental sustainability; and society (not the state) taking the reins of economic development.

Many of the ideas of Karl Marx, in fact.

Love, solidarity, equality are how this ‘21st century socialism’ is characterised, according to Chavez, differentiating it from the errors of the model which was implemented in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the 20th century. An economic model aiming primarily to satisfy human needs.

Key to it, at a very fundamental level, is the participation of people in decisions affecting their lives at local level. De-centralising as much as possible, and creative combinations of

participatory, direct democracy and representative democracy. The Zapatista idea of ‘governing by obeying’, and workers appropriating not just the means of production, but the knowledge of how to manage and run their enterprises as well. A new ‘socialist’ efficiency judged on its environmental sustainability and ability to transform the actual people who are participating as workers.

This stems from a recognition that people are formed from their environments, and a new type of person will be produced from living in circumstances where they have meaningful control of their work and community on a daily basis. The state might have legal ownership of the bakery, but the workers would decide on the production process, and the local community would decide on the distribution of the products and the surplus.

Alongside this is the accountability of political leaders, the need for honesty, and responding to sometimes uncomfortable grassroots pressure. The leaders of Venezuela and Ecuador established weekly direct ways of making central government officials more accountable to citizens, via television (Alo Presidente from Chavez) and radio (by Correa). Correa also takes his cabinet meetings round the country and interacts with local leaders and residents.

These are the ideals, and in part the reality, inspiring the left in Latin America. Not all governments oppose neo-liberalism of course, and key decisions are still made outside of governments – by the IMF, transnational corporations, by opposition controlled media – and there is the inherited cultural baggage of paternalism and individualism. The rate of progress in different countries depends on the balance of forces; and the opposition, with US support, has also not been idle.

Coups in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have been foiled, but those in Honduras and Paraguay were sadly not.

One of the key roles for the political state, where the left has gained control of it, is transforming other parts of the state and fostering a new type of state within it. Therefore starting to use the army for socially useful tasks, changing the composition of its officer corps, creating new structures (such as community councils and cooperatives – where people interact in social ways) are as important as nationalisations of key industries and changing how those industries are governed – by the workers and popular organisations, not just the state – is also crucial.

Pete Jones 13

Global education ‘reform’ Building resistance and solidarity Edited by Gawain Little, Manifesto Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-907464-12-6 This very timely and welcome book, edited by Gawain Little (primary teacher, NUT exec. member, EfT editorial board member), is a compilation of contributions by teachers and education union members from some countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe, all of which have had their public education delivery commandeered, through willing and complicit governments, by the Global Education Reform Movement – with the appropriate acronym, especially in its most distasteful and troubling meaning _ GERM. GERM is the trans-global movement which is hi-jacking public education (publicly funded, of course) in order to serve western capital's market and cultural hegemonic aspirations for world dominance.

This movement is dominated by three corporations, one of which many teachers in Britain will be familiar with, namely, the British multi-national, Pearson Plc. This small, but densely informative, and in many ways inspiring, book, is about the thinking and practical fight back, especially that of teacher unions, in some of the countries afflicted by GERM. Its contributors are all dedicated teachers and educationists, steeped in struggle for education systems that serve the needs of all peoples in their various cultures and environments; they all know that the corporate world cannot, and has no desire to, serve these needs. Its opposing interest is for all public education to be at its diktat for its benefit.

The opening article traces the genesis of GERM from its first major manifestation here in the 1988 Education Act, which set a basis in a massive way for the GERM agenda, followed by its common features across education systems internationally – even when implemented sequentially, and in some aspects, differently, according to different national and local cultures, education systems and structures. These features, which undermined all preceding practice, include the ones, of course, that increase our insecurity and

divide us: the fragmentation and privatisation of the system, via: Charter schools (USA), Academies etc.; devolution of management; politicisation of school uniform; loss of tenure and permanency for teachers, alongside salary cuts, wage freezes, 'performance, 'bonus' or 'merit pay'; politicisation of the school curriculum, sidelining some subjects; high stakes testing, arbitrary league tables to ensure 'failure'; arbitrary school closures; attacks on teaching qualifications, and using non-qualified teachers; the outsourcing to private providers of auxiliary and ancillary services, and the increased provision of education packages often via new technology of pre-digested and organised programmes, which destroy natural and creative enquiry, etc. etc., all of which have remoulded the delivery of public education to serve corporate interests and profits.

You know the picture!

Other chapters reveal horrific practices in other GERM infected countries, like in Ethiopia where it reached the stage wherein it no longer mattered whether a teacher was present in the classroom during lessons, as all the lessons were delivered, one after another in different subjects, by programmes shown on a plasma screen, and the teachers were reduced to being guardians of the plasma screen! This was 'modernisation'! Examples such as these show how international trade agreements incorporate very prohibitive and exclusive rights for corporate providers. Incidentally, TTIP, currently being negotiated, if eventually agreed and suiting the corporate world – the raison d'être of TTIP after all – could saddle us with ever more corporate control, with similar consequences.

In many contributions, thankfully, the fightback is described, especially illustrating the development of new thinking and approaches by Teacher and education unions, including Ecuador's efforts to to re-establish a GERM-free education system, and the Mexican struggle too – which demonstrate how a wider public involvement in 14

educational issues can be harnessed, but, also, how the struggle remains difficult; how it can be creative, discovering new tactics and measures and winning support and bigger movements, and even qualitative change, along the way. The Chicago Teachers' Union’s experience fighting GERM has been inspirational and many people will have been given purpose and political understanding en route. Ravi Kumar's short analysis of the situation in India is a delight for its clear insights and plain speaking!

Of special interest to teachers here, both Union members and not, is the chapter jointly written by the editor and Howard Stevenson about the new NUT thinking and approaches to tackling the GERM takeover, and the building of resistance to all the manifestations of it which have reconstructed our public education delivery so fundamentally in England and Wales. It describes a re-orientation of traditional union activity, and teacher involvement in it, to meet the new situation, and the attempt to gain for teachers, parents and communities more real control of the education of our children. It is detailed and thought-provoking, it emphasises the need for involving other community groups to fight for education, with children's needs, in all aspects, as the primary focus, and along the way winning the support of the wider communities for supporting teachers’ needs too. Also, it acknowledges that this is not easy. You may see potential pitfalls in what is being advocated, but it seems that open debate and sharing concerns, as well as ideas, are inherent in this approach, so, say so. It uses the example of the Chicago Teachers' Union’s experience as a model for some ideas for action in England and Wales whilst acknowledging it can't adopt, wholesale, any model from other countries. However, the whole book exudes the idea of national and international communication between teachers and other education workers, sharing ideas and experiences, many of which can be adapted for different circumstances, and it promotes international Union solidarity – after all this is an international, trans-global GERM attack we're fighting!

This book is a 'must' for practising teachers and would be very useful for anybody seeking to discover how our world is increasingly dominated, in all aspects, by trans-global corporations.

International news Cuba Díaz-Canel highlights the role of

the teacher in forming social values ‘We trust our educators, and the new generation of teachers being incorporated into classrooms, who employ their training and talent to overcome enormous challenges’, said Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, first vice president of the Councils of State and Ministers, after concluding a tour of various centres of economic and social interest in the provincial capital, Villa Clara. Educators are called upon to play a vital role in the restoration and formation of values, which in the future will contribute to the creation of the ‘educated and wellinformed society we dream of for our children,’ he continued, while speaking with teachers at the Octavio de la Concepción y la Pedraja semi boarding school, and Gerardo Abreu high school.

At both institutions, he inquired about the implementation of changes in teaching policy, in addition to training of personnel, and links with families and the community, elements which he described as crucial to achieving the objectives proposed for the current academic year.

Elizabeth Jones

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At the UEB Sarex, an entity affiliated with the Luis Augusto Turcios Lima Textile Company, Díaz-Canel he conversed with workers and inquired about the polypropylene sacks and cleaning utensils being produced, insisting on the need to meet planned targets, which are directly related to the imports situation.

During a fruitful exchange with Ángel Javier Acosta, the company director, Díaz-Canel emphasized as a priority ensuring the credibility of accounts and the development of an export perspective for the factory, in order to support the country’s economy.

He also visited the non-agricultural cooperative Aborigen, dedicated to popular food services, where he spoke with administrator José Miguel Hernández about the quality of offers, prices, earnings, and workers’ salaries.

The Cuban Vice President, who was accompanied by Jorgelina Pestana Mederos, president of the provincial government, and Norma Velázquez, member of the Party provincial bureau, also participated in a productive exchange with journalists from the provincial broadcasting company CMHW and other media in attendance, who asked about the fulfillment of the agreements established during the most recent UPEC Congress, among other topics.

During the evening, Díaz-Canel met with neighbours from constituency no.143, in the Vigía Sandino People’s Council, where he stressed the role neighbourhoods play in resolving many of the problems currently affecting the community.

Angel Granma

Freddy

Peras

Greece Minister wants teachers to work longer hours

The Greek secondary teachers' union OLME has rejected calls by the education minister to work an extra two hours a week to offset short staffing in public schools. The public education sector in Greece has suffered massively since the financial crisis hit the country in 2010.

Many schools have been shut, teachers have been made redundant, teachers' pay has been cut almost in half and their pension rights attacked. All of these attacks were caused by the previous government doing the bidding of the so-called Troika – who are in the process of strangling the country in an attempt to wrest payments for bondholders and bankers.

OLME has been in the forefront of the fight back, as we have reported for many years. Now with the Syriza government having been blackmailed into accepting more austerity, it looks as though the attacks will start up again. A spokesperson for OLME said: 'We will oppose any discussion about managing the acute problems of education by hurting teachers’ labor rights'. They accused the minister of failing to hire sufficient full time or substitute teachers to plug the gaps in the school system.

The Education International World Congress recently passed an urgency motion, committing the global union federation to support Greek teachers and to co-ordinate action to fight both austerity and other neoliberal policies. The motion was proposed

by Themis Kotsifakis, the outgoing President of OLME.

Cabrera,

See more at: http:// www.teachersolidarity.com/blog/greekminister-wants-teachers-to-work-morehours#sthash.9aFGLdCV.dpuf 16