I am very much against minimum service levels (MSL). I would like to make 4 points which I think are related. 1: public sector 'reforms' are presented an politically neutral when it seems obvious that this is far from the case. 2: since the 1980s the predominate ideology has been neoliberalism where education is in effect seen to operate in a market. One of the side effects of this is that aspects such as 'competition' and 'choice' become central. In such a milieu it makes sense that teachers are reduced to 'efficient' technicians (Smyth and Shacklock) . The less they can be paid and less rights they have the more 'efficient' the system and the more teachers can be exploited. 3, in any society I think there have to be checks and balances and my interpretation of MSL is that it is a further attempt to erode worker rights. This government have a terrible record on worker rights and we, the citizens, are now reaping the results of this. The politicians who have done this have no 'skin in the game'. I never see my MP in the chairs at the surgery! 4, for me MSL is a distraction from the real issue that the state education sector has been effectively privatised since the 1980s and so education is now seen, in policy, as an economic good. In this I agree with Giroux (2014:111) who says , "The neo-liberal state no longer invests in solving social problems; it now punishes those who are caught in a downward spiral of its economic policies. Under such circumstances, the social state is transformed into a corporate and punishing state. This causes the social contract between the state and the citizen is broken, and social guarantees for youth as well as civic obligations to the future vanish from the agenda of public concern. Similarly, as market values supplant civic values, it becomes increasingly difficult to ‘translate private worries into public issues and conversely to discern public issues in private troubles’. Alcoholism, homelessness, poverty and illiteracy among other issues are not seen as social but as individual problems- matters of character, individual fortitude personal responsibility."
We’re looking for responses to a consultation on the introduction of minimum service levels in education.
We’d especially like to hear from teachers in both primary and secondary education.
Take part in the consultation now ⬇️
https://ow.ly/3cqG50QpWne
