Teachers: Licenced to Indoctrinate?

Old Holborn Has a thought on the scheme proposed by the government this week that teachers should have regular reviews and be issued a licence to teach. He thinks that its a mechanism to standardise indoctrination across our schools.

He might have a point, but let me take it further.

So far the government has only been able to ruin state schools. Schools outside the state sector have largely been untouched by the grim hand of government. Thats why children attending public schools fare so much better than those in the state sector.

Enter licences for teachers. Every teacher will be required to have a licence and I assume will be assessed in part on their adherence to the national curriculum. They would probably be marked down for any deviations from the curriculum. This will severely curtain the public schools, who excel in no-expense-spared wide-ranging education that doesn't necessarily adhere to dogmatic PC doctrine and a fixed, narrow curriculum.

Again, its all about control. Its a way to finally control public schools and limit the advantage they give over the state sector.

I should know, I'm a product of one of the crappiest schools in my area. It was so underfunded it was a joke. Metalwork class was hysterical: one lathe between 30 kids. I never actually got to have a go on it, because the term ran out before I had my chance in the queue! We had to buy our own textbooks or share between 2-3 kids because the school couldn't fund a book for every one of us. So I know how important education is. I fought tooth and nail to get my son specialist help. When he was consigned to a mainstream school thanks to Oxfordshire LEA's dogmatic "mainstream or nothing" approach, I fought again to get him statemented and supported in-class. In the end he got GCSE B and C grades, a testament to my initial support (which cost me my career) and the ongoing support of his LSA, who stuck by him all the way through school and only left once he'd finished his GCSE's. Thats the sort of commitment we need in every school in order to improve education. Not dragging the best down to make the lowest look better.

What galls me is that Labour are intent on dragging everyone down to the lowest level; the politics of jealousy, rather than looking at the top percentile and trying to emulate the processes and procedures that go into educating those kids. Nope: in Labours world, if the state can't fund a decent education, then those able to step away and pay for it should be penalised and consigned to banality too.

They are determined to ruin this country.

I just thought I'd add this:

I've since moved from Oxfordshire to Hampshire. I can quite honestly say that my daughter has come on leaps and bounds at her new school, not only educationally, but as a person. To me a convincing case that dogma loses out over a proper, rounded education.