By Joe Langabeer
Reform UK have recently unveiled their education plans for schools, including an overhaul of the history curriculum, planting Union Jacks in every school, and having a portrait of King Charles III in every classroom. In another sign that Nigel Farage wants to move us further towards an American, Trump-style model of rule, where children have to pledge their allegiance to the American flag in school every day, Farage, and in particular former Tory and now education spokesperson for Reform, Suella Braverman, seem to want to instil this in our classrooms to promote “patriotism” for young people.
Stephen Bush, an associate editor and daily newsletter writer for the Financial Times, wrote a very good opinion piece criticising the policies. What he, alongside others, has stated specifically about the curriculum overhaul is that it is not really any different from the history curriculum that is taught now. Braverman called for pupils to learn about the Magna Carta, the Wars of the Roses, the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, the Act of Union, the Enlightenment, and Victorian Britain. The syllabus would cover 60%, which is devoted to “British” history. Bush gives an example that 87% of English secondary schools teach the Magna Carta from Year 7 to Year 9, in which history is a compulsory subject.
In fact, whilst it is not considered mandatory to teach these subjects, all content mentioned by Reform is given as examples by the Department for Education to be taught in schools as part of the national curriculum, as stated in this document here. What is mandatory, however, is that for all periods of history that should be taught, Britain must be the core focus. Even in the early 1900s, when the document starts to discuss Europe and conflicts, such as World War I or II, it states that the lessons must focus on what the challenges were for Britain.
Changes with no purpose
Whilst the planting of Union Jacks and the plastering of photos of Charles in every classroom is clearly a performative act of nationalistic jingoism, the choice to overhaul the history curriculum with the exact same curriculum feels like they didn’t do any of their homework. It is a chance for Reform to attempt to attack what they see as the “culture wars” in schools, where they think that children in Britain are being indoctrinated by teachers with “woke” revisions of history, all because teachers justifiably might offer some critique of the damaging legacy of British imperialism.
But it also offers a large glimpse at how shallow much of Reform’s policy platform will be. Schools are in financial disarray, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) costs are rising rapidly, teachers are reporting more bad behaviour and violence in the classroom, teachers are leaving the profession in droves, and the fact that this is the only set of policies that Reform could come up with for education demonstrates how little they care for the sector.
Instead, Farage and Reform know that education might become the sector most hostile to their potential reign, should they win the next general election. Already, Farage has made attacks on the education unions, particularly the National Education Union (NEU), with The Guardian reporting back in October that, at a private dinner at a US college, he commented that the NEU were “poisoning our kids” on race issues and suggested that the NEU were spreading propaganda that kids should be ashamed of their country, whilst also claiming the NEU themselves were controlled by “Marxists”.
This has been part of a back-and-forth exchange, where the NEU general secretary, Daniel Kebede, has publicly and rightfully attacked Farage and his racist policies. Farage also commented that he believes teachers would go on strike within weeks should he ever take power. He is probably correct, but not because of a political agenda against him, but because he is offering nothing for teachers and the education sector as a whole.
Teachers are fed up
In a report released by the charity Education Support last November exploring teacher wellbeing, it found that wellbeing was at its lowest level for teachers and education staff since 2019. 76% of education staff responded saying they felt stressed at work. 77% believed that they were suffering from poor mental health as a result of their work, and 86% of those in senior positions at schools felt that they were exhausted and burnt out.
Labour have been woeful in attempting to handle the burnout felt across the education sector. Whilst they have offered a meagre pay rise to teachers and staff, the condition of that pay rise was that senior leaders and headteachers would have to find the financial headroom in their schools to cover quite a substantial amount of the cost. It means cuts to teaching assistants, cuts to resources, and cuts to specialist staff, which would only burden teachers with further workloads.
All of this is on top of the fact that this pay rise does not address the real-terms pay cuts that teachers have received over the previous 14 years under the Tory government, as stated by the leader of NASUWT, Matt Wrack, and reported by The Independent.
At the NEU conference this spring, the Green Party leader Zack Polanski was invited to speak to delegates. He gave a policy-fuelled speech that would be inspiring for the future of the education sector if the Greens got into government. He called for the abolition of OFSTED, an oppressive and purposeless regulator that only seeks to torment teachers at the expense of their wellbeing. He called for the end of academisation and to give a “serious cash injection” to support teachers and students. The delegates gave him a standing ovation, as they should, because it is a far better set of policies than what other political parties are offering at this time.
Of course, that “serious cash injection” should not come from the pockets of workers, but from the pockets of billionaires who have leeched from local councils and national government to provide poor private education services, such as SEND schools. I have already written about the profit-making of SEND schools, which you can find on the Left Horizons website here. However, the speech was a very strong direction for the future, and this Labour government, post-Starmer, would be wise to adopt these policies.
Students in crisis
Whilst the Greens have put forward a far more radical platform than Labour when it comes to education, Labour are still somewhat more serious about the education sector than Reform are. Even Alan Milburn, a right-wing Labour loyalist who served under Tony Blair, has been carrying out a government-commissioned review into why young people are increasingly not in employment or education. Whilst that review has not been completed, he has criticised the current “exam-obsessed” school system, implemented by the former Tory MP Michael Gove when he was Education Secretary during the coalition era.
Milburn refers to polling conducted by YouGov, in which teachers staunchly agree that the curriculum should be broadened to deliver real-world skills without lowering standards. There was overwhelming agreement from teachers that careers advice should be strengthened for young people and that young people should be offered more applied or vocational pathways before the age of 16, with 92% of teachers supporting the latter point.
I do not wholly agree with Milburn’s argument that schools should completely adapt themselves to be centred around work, as learning does not always revolve around someone’s workplace, there is clearly an imbalance where schools recognise academic achievement far more than vocational achievement.
There should be far fewer exams, and more learning about the workplace. There should be an emphasis on coursework, which is often done practically and prepares students for both academic and vocational skills. It should not only focus on how someone can enter the labour market, as Milburn puts it, but there should be lessons on trade unions and how to protect yourself when it comes to employment rights in the workplace.
Reform discusses none of this. Even looking back at their 2024 general election manifesto, there is very little to say about the curriculum other than to teach “patriotism”. Now, they have offered a quota to teach it, despite the fact that it is already embedded in the national curriculum.
What we do know is that the last manifesto wanted to give VAT relief for private schools and obsess over banning “transgender” ideology in schools, when it does not exist. There is nothing that helps the students, nothing to support the teachers, and no help for parents who want the best for their children. It is only to cater to the wealthy elite, the very same people that Farage and his Reform clique are a part of.
image from Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Children_in_a_classroom.jpg
