Bridget Phillipson is insulting our intelligence – and giving herself damaging repute | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Another promise made, one other promise damaged. This week it’s the flip of Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to desert one among Labour’s largest pledges. Labour mentioned they’d make use of 6,500 extra lecturers. It was one of many principal guarantees of their election manifesto, lower than a yr in the past.

But within the statistics that got here out yesterday trainer numbers had been down, not up. There had been 2,900 fewer lecturers in major faculties. Labour’s response? To transfer the goalposts and say that major faculties now don’t rely. That’s extraordinarily insulting to those that educate in major faculties.

It’s additionally an insult to the intelligence of the remainder of us – to try to fiddle the figures in such an apparent means. It’s not the one damaged promise from Phillipson, who’s getting a nasty repute for such sneaky strikes.

In the final election Labour promised to not improve nationwide insurance coverage, however they famously broke that promise, and somebody incomes simply £13,000 a yr can be taking dwelling £500 much less on account of the tax improve. They did a minimum of say they’d absolutely fund faculties to offset the impression of this.

But then they broke that promise too. Some faculties had been short-changed by greater than a 3rd. Next they broke their promise to totally fund the pay award for lecturers.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, this can go away a £400 million funding hole for faculties subsequent yr. That hole is one cause many lecturers are getting the sack proper now, forward of the beginning of the brand new college yr in September.

As nicely as short-changing faculties and presiding over falling trainer numbers, Phillipson has bowed to the commerce unions and is undoing 30 years value of cross celebration reforms together with her disastrous Schools Bill.

Reforms over the past 30 years have raised requirements and created extra competitors and selection for fogeys. England’s faculties soared up the worldwide league tables.

In distinction faculties in Labour-run Wales remained run by the commerce unions, and Welsh faculties slumped down the identical league tables consequently. And but the reforms which labored in England are being undone, purely to suck as much as the left and the commerce unions.

Labour have damaged their largest promise in training, and they’re making an attempt to fiddle the figures to cowl that up. It’s treating us like fools, and it’s letting our youngsters down.