By LORD CAREY, Ex-Archbishop of Canterbury
THE CLAIM from Marks & Spencer's boss Sir Stuart Rose that many of our youngsters are leaving school "unfit for work" is a devastating indictment of the education system.
But, shamefully, it is true.
What happened to the Government's seductive three-word mantra: Education, Education, Education?
My heart bleeds at the way we are betraying a generation of youngsters. Apart from personal failings and thwarted ambitions they are, after all, our future.
The blunt fact is many schools are in an abysmal mess. Unfortunately, too many weak heads are unwilling or unable to resist political pressures.
With the result that pupils are subjected to social engineering rather than old-fashioned discipline and rigorous attention to the very basics of learning - the now much maligned three R's, Reading, Writing & Arithmetic.
Before anyone says I'm talking from a posh Eton and Oxbridge background, I'd like to remind people that I grew up in a working-class home in Dagenham, Essex, and went to a secondary modern school, leaving at 16 to start work with the Electricity Board.
My school was far from the best. But at least I was motivated by a head who saw potential in me.
And I was blessed with parents who wanted me and my four siblings to seize the chances that they'd never had.
That's why I'm passionate about education and sit on the board of a group of academies where we are getting wonderful, reassuring results from our children. Pupils, encouraged by their parents, clamouring to better themselves.
Still, for far too many schools, one oppressive problem remains: An ever-expanding mountain of unwarranted government interference. The new initiative on domestic violence from the government, under which pupils are to be taught that "mistreating and abusing girls is unacceptable", is a case in point.
It's no surprise that boys are faring so badly when they are bombarded with the negative notion that THEY are the problem.
By making lessons in gender equality compulsory, as part of the personal, social, health and education (PSHE) curriculum, schools are being diverted from their core purpose ever more.
No wonder they have become a one-stop shop in recent years for social work, and baby-sitting for working parents.
The onus on preventing teenage pregnancies and fighting against childhood obesity, which rightly belongs at home, has been dumped on the schools.
As a result they've trespassed on matters which should be dealt with in the family, and failed to meet their primary purpose which is to teach the three R's.
Scandalously, instead of emphasising "education, education, education", the government have subjected schools to a barrage of initiatives designed to further government policy rather than benefit children themselves.
Future government must cut the red tape and invest in the teaching profession, especially heads, so they can do their job free from Whitehall interference.
A top head may get £160,000 a year. But their value is priceless.
My personal experience tells me that sink schools can be turned around. I have close links with Manchester Academy, one of the earliest academies built. Six years ago it replaced one of the poorest performing schools in Britain.
This year Manchester Academy received Ofsted's coveted "outstanding" Grade 1, making it now one of the highest rated academies in the land. More than 65 per cent of the pupils there are from other nations, many children of asylum seekers.
How that contrasts with another school in a nearby city which has just been put into special measures for failing its children. And what is the difference between the two schools?
I'm ashamed to say that the second school comprises mostly white, indigenous kids who no longer seem motivated to work. The real difference, though, lies with the drive, motivation and dedication of the Manchester head teacher Kathy August.
She worships her pupils and cares deeply for their futures. She shows it with love - and zero tolerance of bad behaviour and poor attendance.
Though so many start with English as a second language, Kathy expects kids to succeed and makes sure they know it.
Meanwhile elsewhere, at another school, a head has recently been sacked for complacency and lack of demand from lazy children and indifferent parents. And rightly so.
Instead of adding to the crushing demands on schools, our government needs to wake up parents of white children to their responsibilities. They must match the admirable hunger and pride of ethnic families who drive their children to succeed, giving them the best possible start in life.
School days are far too precious to allow complacent heads, touchy-feely teachers and meddling politicians to sabotage them.
Our kids get one chance for themselves, their futures and their country.
We MUST halt this betrayal.
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