The future

The party conferences in October, they say, may be the last before the next general election. So this is just the time for offering them a policy each for education. Neither the Labour Party nor the Conservatives are likely to evolve anything very coherent if left to themselves, which is sad if understandable. Both will be preoccupied with other things. But it is no good educators sitting back glumly and complaining; we have to chip in and give a hand. Nor is it much good suggesting things which the individual parties can't possibly manage. You might think that Circular 10/65 on secondary reorganization should never have been issued, but telling the Labour Party to withdraw it is not the way to influence in the party. You may believe that streaming is the biggest handicap to educational advance, but there is not much sense in urging the Conservative somehow to abolish it. What we have to do is to see what elements of the traditional attitudes of the parties ought to be encouraged, from the point of view of education, and which diverted.