Our kids derserve a good education
The vast majority of parents want their children to have the best possible start in life.
It is hardwired into human nature that most adults will do what it takes to nurture their young and help them grow into fine little people and there are many tactics used to achieve this.
Some dead-eyed obsessives will march their offspring around auditions until they are discovered by Simon Cowell while others will take junior down the park every afternoon until they really do learn to bend it like Beckham.
Most of us, however, believe that success in life boils down to one thing: a good education. It is not exclusively the case that the straight A whizzkids who routinely missed Neighbours in order to focus on trigonometry homework end up the successful ones. However, those of my contemporaries who took school really seriously 25 years ago now tend to be enjoying the fruits of their teenage labour.
Such is the importance placed upon education that it has long been considered to be a ‘political football’ something the elected members both in Westminster and council chambers love to shout about. This particular Government is no different from previous administrations when it comes to telling people how much they value our ‘world class’ education system.
But there are education professionals out there who will shout that we ‘could do better’. This includes the 7,000 headteachers who last week put their names to a letter sent to parents, explaining what they’re trying to do to tackle the funding crisis affecting so many schools.
The Government line is that more money is now being spent on education than at any time in our history, with funding set to rise nationally to £43.5bn by next year but official figures are hotly disputed by those on the frontline with WorthLess?, the campaign formed to tackle the issue, estimating that school budgets have been cut by eight per cent since 2010.
Last autumn 2,000 headteachers converged on Westminster to hammer home their point that some schools really are worse off than others in different parts of the country.
It’s now commonplace for parents in some parts of the land to make a ‘suggested donation’ to the school coffers, while others send out online wishlists, asking families to pay for basics such as stationary. Some parents put their hands deep into their pockets but a good education in Britain is supposed to be accessible to all.
Rather than Brexit, it is this issue, an issue which matters more than any other, which should be front and centre of the national debate right now. We owe it to our kids.