THE INDEPENDENT: Teachers warn of 'toxic' effect of a socially segregated system
Schools are becoming increasingly segregated along class lines, teachers have warned – calling spending cuts and reforms that hit poor pupils the Coalition's "dirty little secret".
The poorest children are suffering most from the "toxic" effects of socially divided schools, according to the leader of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. "We have schools for the elite; schools for the middle class and schools for the working class," Mary Bousted said. "Too few schools have mixed intakes where children can learn those intangible life skills of aspiration, effort and persistence from one another."
Dr Bousted, who heads the most moderate of the three teachers' unions, added: "This Coalition Government's attack on poor children is a blight upon our conception of ourselves as a civilised society. They remind me of a former Prime Minister who said there was no such thing as society." » | Richard Garner | Thursday, April 05, 2012
