Education

As someone who has recently been through the education system, I can tell you that education is in great need for reform.

  1. The working conditions for teachers is unacceptable. The demands of work and its resulting stress are too high. These people are being driven into early graves if they stick at the job. And if their sense of self preservation gets the better of them, they simply leave. No civilised society should be willing to tolerate working conditions that are killing people. I am calling for the recruitment of more teachers and the consequent reduction of their workload and stress in order that they can have the same quality of life that is a fundamental right for us all. 
  1. I ask that all teachers reconnect with their humanity and stand up in defence of the children and the wider school community, resist the morally repellant aspects of the centrally planned curriculum.
  1. Sex education in schools has reached morally abhorrent levels. A last minute alteration for the age of the children to be subject to the exposure to sexual activity by the outgoing Government is as welcome as it is a demonstration of political cynicism. I propose that sex education should begin with the under 14s where their personal and physical development should warrant the subject. This subject, delivered to anyone younger needs to be seen for what it is, state sponsored, sexual grooming of minors.
  1. The ever growing numbers of children with Special Educational Needs requires more and better resources and a coherent National plan to guide and support Local Educational policies. At some point we have to open the conversation about the growing number of children with SEN and its close correlation with the growing number of infant vaccinations.
  1. We have to see the School Academy program for what it is. The covert privatisation of state education. It is my view that this must be stopped and reversed. There can be no room for private profit in the delivery of any public service.
  1. Ofsted does more harm than good and it has to go. It has very little, if anything to do with securing educational standards and everything to do with centralised control. Getting rid of it will go a long way to enabling teachers to focus on the needs of the children and enabling schools to better serve their communities. As the cost of Ofsted is in the billions, the redirecting of this squandered cash will be a great boost to all schools in York and nationally.