Laura McInerney has made an excellent case in the Guardian, for schools
to have access to counsellors, and was absolutely correct to emphasise the need
to "tackle the tough 30% of students who continue failing GCSEs". However, by
dismissing Gove`s changes to the assessment procedures as"little more than
tidying around the edges of an exam system for 16 year olds" shows how she, by
no means alone on this, is seriously missing the point. An ideologically-driven
and politically ambitious Education Secretary like Gove does not "tidy around";
under his system of examinations the success/fail percentages will not be 70%
and 30% like they are now, as the failure rate is bound to increase, possibly
with the above figures reversed. After all, Tory ideology is not aimed at
increasing working class success, and I fear the real motive behind Gove`s
reforms is a two-tier state education system, with academic success for the top
30% in their grammar schools, and secondary modern education, with low
aspiration, self esteem and lower paid teachers, for the rest. Think how many
more counsellors will be needed then! The sooner Labour realises what Gove`s
not-so-cunning plan entails,and promises immediate repeal of all of the
coalition`s education legislation, the better.
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