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A broad swathe of authors including Alan Gibbons, Bali Rai, Mary Hoffman and Sally Gardner have voiced their support for the National Union of Teacher’s (NUT) new education manifesto, which calls for less testing in schools.
The "Stand Up For Education" manifesto, released by the National Union of Teachers earlier this month, called for a“wider vision” of learning in schools. Teachers should spend more time teaching, not testing, and music, drama and vocational subjects should not be sidelined, it said.
Gardner said the manifesto is one of the “cheeriest” she has seen in a long time. “I believe we have to start valuing other forms of intelligence, rather than just academic performance and this manifesto goes a long way towards recognising that.”
Gibbons said the manifesto is about “quality of learning, rather than league tables and tests”, adding: “Tests don’t teach you anything, they just assess how you’re doing. Children have to learn first… the manifesto is about the centrality of learning so it opens up the possibility of learning above continuous assessment,” he said.
Hoffman praised the manifesto’s call for fewer tests in school because teachers are drowning in paperwork and “there doesn't seem to be an atom of evidence that SATs, the phonics test and all the endless box ticking has produced a single better reader or more fulfilled child”.
The manifesto is also against the current government’s policy of allowing private companies to run education services for profit, and calls for local authorities to be given oversight of all state-funded schools and the end of free school approvals.
“The manifesto is a wake-up call to anyone who wants to protect and improve on free education for all children, and for those who oppose the creep of privatisation and the profit motive,” said Rai. “We have a fantastic state sector which is proven to be just as good, if not better, than the free school/academy model.
Gibbons agreed that education “shouldn’t be run by bureaucrats” and said bringing schools under local authority remits will encourage more schools to have their own library.
He said: “We campaign on school libraries but Gove and the education department always said you can’t tell head teachers what to do. But if schools are run by local authorities you can make recommendations. Free schools can ignore recommendations.”
Beverley Naidoo said: “A government that is serious about education would be promoting community and school libraries and value the professional skills in maintaining them.”
Other recommendations in the manifesto are that teachers should always have a teaching qualification, teaching should be a more attractive profession (so workloads should be reduced) and all teachers should be paid according to a national pay structure. In addition, the government should work to improve child poverty across the country to reduce inequality, said the NUT.
Gibbons is currently asking for signatories from people in the book industry supporting the manifesto and so far has more than 35 signatures, including Michael Rosen, Barbara Band and Terry Jones.
Several authors also voiced their support on twitter. Philip Pullman tweeted: “The NUT's new Manifesto for Education is first-rate and well worth supporting.”
Jonathan Emmett tweeted there should be more teaching, not more tests, but said he would have liked to have seen support for Fair Admissions, a group which campaigns for an end to faith-based selection in schools.