In her depressing article, Polly Toynbee states that social mobility has gone into reverse (Keir Starmer has finally used the C-word: acknowledging the barriers of class that still divide us, 6 July).
She refers to the progress made during the postwar years, and I experienced this directly; after leaving school without A-levels, I got into university as a mature student in the early 1970s. Evening classes were my access route and they transformed my life. There were a lot of groundbreaking initiatives in that period. One was the National Extension College (NEC), created in the early 1960s by Michael Young, author of the seminal The Rise of the Meritocracy, and Brian Jackson, co-author of Education and the Working Class.
They had identified the adults who had had their lives and education disrupted during the war and were missing the qualifications they needed to progress to the next stage. Young and Jackson wanted to do something practical and set up the NEC with a small grant in 1963 to deliver high-quality courses through distance learning. It is still going strong, celebrating 60 years this year, and meeting a real gap for people of all ages who need a second chance.
Over the years, NEC has had a much wider influence and it paved the way to establishing the remarkable Open University in 1969. A significant feature of NEC is that it is a self-financing education trust. It is not in receipt of government funds. This might be part of the reason why it has lasted for 60 years and is still going strong.
Ros Morpeth
Cambridge
• Class is back, as Polly Toynbee has highlighted. Presently the lack of arts education “levels down” those in state education, while those in private education prosper through arts engagement, giving them an edge. The educationalist Ken Robinson, commissioned by New Labour when in power, argued in his excellent report, All Our Futures, that creativity should be at the heart of education rather than literacy and numeracy.
Creativity is central to the core curriculum and Keir Starmer’s plan for Labour to prioritise this looks promising. Sadly, Tony Blair decided not to implement Robinson’s proposals, so if Starmer does grace No 10 we can only hope that he rectifies this anomaly.
Dr Paul Clements
London
• While Polly Toynbee rightly bemoans the lack of cultural experiences available to less advantaged students, this sad state of affairs cannot, for once, be blamed entirely on a government unwilling to foot the bill for extracurricular school activities.
As a teacher working in a school in Tyneside that serves a deprived area, I see a decline in my colleagues’ willingness to organise school visits. The organisational hurdles we have to overcome in preparation for any outing are just too high for an already exhausted workforce; it is easier not to bother.
These hurdles are largely down to health and safety rules, which everyone – the government, opposition, society in general – seems to accept as a good thing, despite the detrimental effect their implementation has on the students. Can we please have a discussion on the disadvantage to our young people by the reluctance of schools to take risks?
Name and address supplied
• Keir Starmer seems to be either unwilling or unable to confront the root causes of inequality endemic in our society. The pledge to create “child poverty reduction specialists” (Report, 5 July) is whistling in the wind. It may create the impression of action, but what are these specialists meant to do when confronted with children whose lives (and those of their parents) have been blighted by 10 years of austerity, with every public service on which they depend in a parlous state?
Shirley Osborn
Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire
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