In My View: Florence Eshalomi, MP for Vauxhall

During the pandemic, I saw our teachers in Vauxhall work tirelessly to keep our country going.

When the children of those who could not work from home, including frontline staff in hospitals such as St Thomas’, still needed access to in-person teaching, it was our teachers who kept our schools open despite increasing the chances they would catch Covid-19.

When the delivery of teaching suddenly changed from a whiteboard to a webcam almost overnight, it’s our teachers who had to adapt to this new way of learning to make sure our children still received the highest possible standard of education.

When schools started to open again despite the risk from the pandemic still being high, it was our teachers who delivered new protocols and reacted to Covid outbreaks to keep not just our pupils but also their families and friends safe.

Last month, I was delighted to welcome some of our teachers into parliament to say thank you for this hard work, dedication and leadership throughout an exceptionally difficult two years.

However, the qualities of leadership shown by teachers is not one matched by the Government when it comes to education.

In the week beginning the July 4, the Conservatives got through more Education Secretaries than the previous Labour Government did in its last four years in power.

It is perhaps unsurprising that new Education Secretaries run a mile when faced with the state of our education sector after 12 years of Conservative mismanagement.

From Michael Gove’s reforms ushered in under the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition to a revision of the funding formula that actually decreased funding for the most disadvantaged schools and increased funding for the least disadvantaged, the Conservative record in education is one of unwanted reform and regressive policies.

This is all having a devastating impact on the children our education system is supposed to be delivering for.

This failure was thrown into sharp contrast during the pandemic.

Rather than building a resilient, prepared education system that was up to the challenges presented by Covid-19, many pupils fell behind on their education while schools were closed.

And when pupils returned, the failure to build new schools fit for the 21st century meant that ventilation was not up to standard, and teachers alike had to take extra precautions to ensure pupils could be kept safe.

This was also seen during the heatwave last month, where many pupils missed out on vital time in school as our crumbling classrooms are simply unsuitable for pupils during hot weather.

All this means that more and more pupils are playing catch up after absences from school.

But even efforts to implement a catch-up program have been undermined by Conservative incompetence, with the company contracted out to help pupils catch up consistently missing targets and letting pupils down again.

Education cannot be a political football to be passed from politician to politician, we need serious leadership in this area to fix the problems caused by over a decade of mismanagement.