REBECCA LONG BAILEY, candidate for leader of the Labour Party, released this week her “socialist vision for schools” and there is a lot of inspiring stuff in there, giving me hope that the next manifesto will be one with education at its core.

My only criticism is that this vision does not go far enough. A true socialist vision for education needs to be even more radical, not just echoing but also building on our 2019 manifesto. 

Let’s have a vision that sees an end to the cruel testing of primary-age pupils — a system which puts young children under high levels of stress leaving them in tears. 

Instead, let’s replace it with assessment by those who know them best, their teachers. 

We could get really radical if we wanted. Let’s put an end to GCSEs: with children staying in education now till 18, why add a layer of high-level testing two years before? Even the man who invented GCSEs now says they are no longer fit for purpose. 

On Monday a survey by the National Education Union showed that “two-thirds of teachers considered quitting over pay and less than half of teachers have received this year's promised 2.75 per cent rise.” 

Long Bailey has offered to tackle this by promising to restore teacher and school staff pay to pre-crisis levels and she rightly points out that there is, “after years of cuts a retention and recruitment crisis among teachers who are underpaid and overworked.” 

This is true. Neoliberalism, austerity, “new management techniques,” targets and metrics have wreaked havoc on our education system, leaving a workforce which is demotivated, alienated and undervalued. 

Let’s end once and for all performance-related pay and put emphasis on education outcomes as the driver for teaching, not data. 

Judging a teacher based on the result of one test on one summer’s day while ignoring all the other aspects of school life underplays the vital role that teachers play in the lives of young people. 

According to the Education Endowment Foundation, performance-related pay makes just above zero difference to pupil outcomes. 

So if the purpose isn’t better education, then what is it? 

Any socialist vision must of course involve our education unions, with a return to national collective bargaining for all education workers — giving all education professionals the autonomy and trust that they deserve by involving them in decision-making. 

Who should be more trusted with making decisions on education? Education professionals? Or politicians on the corridors of Whitehall?

We need a restoration of democratic accountability with a new system of local authorities to run education, and not just a replica of the old local education authorities but taking this chance to develop something new. 

We could develop local pedagogy and curriculum centres with parents, heads, teachers and unions involved, working to develop a curriculum and pedagogy that fits our local areas and the children we serve. 

We need a modern education system for a modern socialist Britain and what this should look like should be decided as a profession. In that we could learn from unions in the US, where everyone is involved in articulating this vision. 

Let’s finally abolish Ofsted and replace it with a form of inspectorate that works with our pedagogy and curriculum centres to develop schools in a supportive, non-judgemental way. 

Ofsted has proven only to be an accurate predictor of the wealth of a community. So let’s replace it with an inspectorate that is part of the local authorities, one truly embedded in the community, one which knows and understands the context and the challenges faced by the people it serves.  

Boris Johnson’s new Cabinet is two-thirds privately educated, whereas only seven per cent of children actually attend fee-paying institutions. 

This, in his own words, is meant to be a government which “truly reflects modern Britain” but predictably all it reflects is the old boys’ network, privilege and elitism.  

Any socialist vision for education must start with the creation of a single, unified system of education, free from hierarchy, elitism and segregation. 

I welcome Long Bailey’s statement that “we should remove tax loopholes for private schools and bring academies and free schools under local democratic control,” but we must also honour the manifesto which committed the party to look at how private schools can be finally integrated into the state sector. 

Long Bailey, along with Richard Burgon, has secured the Socialist Educational Association’s support in her bid for leadership. 

Out of all the leadership candidates, Long Bailey was the only one to take time to write to the SEA before the nomination went in. 

Now is the time for the national education service to be fleshed out and launched to the nation, perhaps as a series of NES roadshows where, along with the unions that must play a pivotal role, the vision can be explained to the country.  

I believe that Long Bailey is the best person for the job and the best hope for socialism in this country. I also believe that alongside a green industrial revolution we also need a revolution in education and I look forward to a Labour Party led by her that will realise this vision.