NB: Letter in response to Guardian article “Green party’s education policies are outdated and ‘total madness’ – Labour”. Please feel free to republish with credit.
Dear Tristram Hunt MP,
My friends think you are ‘fit’. Seriously, I know one girl who would rate you as a ‘9/10’!
Don’t get me wrong, you’re a very good looking man. Though I must say despite your chiselled looks, your thoughts on Green education policy are highly unattractive.
I’m sure that when Sam Pancheri, our Schools spokesperson, has her own interview with The Guardian it will show how truly progressive Green politics are, and how stagnant and unwanted Labour’s current ideology seems to be among the public, but let me perhaps tell you my own story in the meantime. This is something that, as a young person, I am extremely passionate about and will not stand for such an attack on common-sense policies.
I come from a very working class family and I’m proud of my roots. I am the son of an self-employed Italian immigrant father and mother who has been a public sector worker for most of her life; I went to TImbercroft Primary School (which, if you didn’t know, was in Greenwich, SE London) and was the only person in my cohort to pass the 11+ selective ability tests, thus went to Bexley Grammar School in Welling. My secondary education was driven by the need to pass exams so the school could continually boast about high performing GCSE and A Level Results, and ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted scores, not about developing my individual needs. At the age of 16, I started my own part-time business, selling eBooks and drop-shipping products online, alongside undertaking the I.B. I was told I needed to stop it or be expelled as it would impact my grades (it didn’t) and would look ‘bad on the school.’ I was taught to conform.
I took a few years out of education after finishing my International Baccalaureate, something which I do really value as being one of the reasons I am who I am today, though my admiration for my parents and their life and work ethics also plays a significant part. The I.B shaped me as a person; it was rigorous with six subjects but had a mix of philosophy, creativity and developing skills outside of the class room through volunteering thrown in to it. There were times during the I.B when I felt like I had control over what I was learning, and how I wanted to progress. Then, after almost 5 years working in London, I went back to education (the first in my family to do so) and it’s taken me around 3 years to realise the dire state of the sector and how students are used for their money in a commercialised and private system when you reach higher education.
This is why I joined The Green Party and this is why I applied, and became, the Higher and Further Education spokesperson. I’m not an experienced academic, I’m not a HE policy expert, and I’m definitely still learning. But, I am passionate about changing the current system that saddles students with oppressive student fees, rewards Vice-Chancellors with ever-growing pay packets whilst everyone else has to fight for a 1% increase, and silences those who attempt to speak out on issues they feel passionate about with ridiculously exaggerated court injunctions.
Green education policies are sensible, progressive, and would end the years of privatisation brought to market. The Green Party represents me, a lot of teachers, a lot of academics and certainly a lot of the “99%” of the world who have suffered from current and previous government’s austerity measures in the name of shrinking the state. Teachers are not paid enough, are forced to work long hours and be continually assessed and monitored to see if they are conforming to what the governments wants everyone to learn about. That’s not the education system I want to see, nor is it the one The Green Party will promote.
Mr Hunt, you state that voting Green would be a risk to our Education system and would cause more damage than good. Children DO start in education far too early, earlier than the majority of other western countries, and the first few years has been proven to be key in child development. So why must we force a national curriculum on them from an early age? Children can learn in many ways, they do not need a teacher suffering from low pay and extreme demands to be forced to make them conform.
“Nobody is voting green because they agree with their policies” says Mr Hunt. May I ask, have you looked at http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/? The Greens’ education policies score 37.64% – far above Labour’s 11.65%. I think that alone discredits what you say.
Teaching to the test is not satisfying teaching, and it’s boring for students, yet that’s what successive governments have obliged teachers to do. We need to free teachers and pupils to rediscover the excitement of learning, released from the shackles of a system designed only with economic competitiveness and preparation for work in mind, and with excessive teacher workloads burdened by bureaucracy.
Labour was part of the reason a bid to suspend fracking did not go through parliament yesterday and another reason to worry about the future. Clearly, right now, they are unfortunately a party heading in the wrong direction and I am so disappointed in that because I see so many of my friends struggling to be able to continue supporting them.
Mr Hunt, I’d like to thank you for your attack on The Greens. You’ve made a lot of people wake up to our sensible, evidence-based policies. There are plenty more available to discuss, and I would welcome any teacher, student, HE professional, mature student, lifelong learner to discuss them with us. In fact, I’d extend that invitation out to everyone – because everyone deserves the right to an accessible and free education, and we learn throughout our entire lives. Education is for everyone, and should work for everyone too.
Fancy taking on me and Sam Pancheri in a debate? I think the education bods would like to see it.
Yours Sincerely,
David Cocozza – Further and Higher Education Spokesperson of The Green Party. Also, a student.
Grassroots activism in Higher Education 