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No school divisions on class
The government must compromise on the Education White paper.
A free market is not the way to improve the chances of pupils
across the community.
A free market, with semi-independent trust schools under parental
control will benefit those students from more affluent homes
across London, able to gain entry to the highest performing
schools, at the expense of local children from less affluent
homes.
Other schools will suffer. The quickest way to move a school
up the league tables is to exclude all difficult or low-performing
students, but is this what education is about?
Such pupils are exactly the children who need a good education
to give them a good start in life. A local authority such as
Camden can help schools which face considerable challenges in
an inner-city area, because the council is committed to educational
improvement for all, as part of community regeneration and challenging
social inequalities. Schools in inner-city areas which have
a mix of students (as in Camden) benefit all pupils. We do not
want schools which divide pupils on the basis on social class.
Camden has invested heavily in education and works in collaboration
with schools, parents and governors to ensure that all pupils
benefit and all schools benefit. I know from past experience
as Executive member for Education that headteachers in Camden
appreciate the support they receive from Camden education staff.
Camden facilitates collaboration between its schools. The government
should be supporting Councils in their role in improving education
in their areas, not reducing their function to that of monitoring
results.
While the government has indeed done much to improve education,
greatly increasing resources available, we must build on this
improvement with those positive aspects of the White Paper,
not undermine the means of delivering a decent and fair education
to all pupils in our schools.
Cllr Deirdre Krymer (Lab)
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