School intake 'segregated by class'

The Press Association:

UK schools are segregated along class lines, leaving the poorest children struggling to achieve against poverty and deprivation, a teachers leader has warned.

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said stratified schools are "toxic" for deprived youngsters as it means they fail to learn important qualities such as aspiration and effort from their richer classmates.

It is the coalition Government's "dirty little secret" that their education cuts and reforms are making the lives of the poorest children tougher, she suggested. And she raised concerns that schools are held up as the scapegoat for educational failure, accusing ministers and Ofsted of "seeking to wash their hands, like Pontius Pilate" of the problem.

In her speech to ATL's annual conference in Manchester, Dr Bousted said: "We have, in the UK, schools whose intakes are stratified along class lines. We have schools for the elite; schools for the middle class and schools for the working class.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 12, 2012 2:32 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas