Government must be 'practical and fair' on education

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Philip Parkin, general secretary of teaching union Voice, outlines the impact the new government will have on education policy.

We wait to see what is in the Queen's Speech about education. It's fairly clear that the new government intends to introduce legislation enabling many more schools, including primary schools, to achieve Academy status – some as soon as September 2010.

I know that new governments have a degree of impatience and want to implement their policies on taking office; but they also have to do it within a practical and fair timescale.

I cannot see that in order to meet the demands of a proper consultation process and a controlled handover of responsibilities and resources from a local authority it is possible to achieve a change of status from local authority control to an Academy by the beginning of the September term.

We are now well into the summer term and with the long vacation to come this is just impractical – and that's without considering the demands of the parliamentary timetable. I think a less haste more speed approach may be of benefit to all.

But what of other possible changes to education. The Lib Dems were quite clear that they wanted the National Curriculum reduced to a handful of pages. The Conservatives were also suggesting a thinning of the curriculum – though not as drastic as their new best friends!

There is little point in teachers beginning implementation of a new primary curriculum if all is to change yet again. There is now a real opportunity for the new government to consider afresh the outcomes of the well-received Cambridge Primary Review which were dismissed so quickly by the Labour government in favour of its own Rose Review.

It certainly is time to look at the whole curriculum again. The primary curriculum has been overloaded for many years and the Early Years curriculum is in danger of telling children and their parents that education is about meeting targets rather than discovery, exploration and fun.

I was both amused and saddened when I walked past a nursery school at the weekend which had a display of work outside done by the Design and Technology Club!

We certainly can expect progress on dealing with the fair treatment of staff subject to allegations including a right to anonymity until charged.

Finally, we would like to see significant progress on two health and safety issues – asbestos in school buildings and also the dangers to staff and pupils from EMF radiation emitted by wireless networks in schools and mobile phone installations on or near school premises.