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Backbeat

You are part of the solution

 Veteran film-maker Ken Loach explores the challenges facing young people today and what teachers can do to help them.

We’ve had mass unemployment, particularly among young people, for 30 or more years now and it’s a tragedy. For many their destiny is to be tossed from one casual job to another, working for agencies on short-term contracts. There’s no job security and no way that they can plan their lives.

Mass youth unemployment isn’t an act of God. It’s a choice by politicians to elevate the interests of big business above all else. The economic engine to which we’re bound used to demand a certain level of unskilled labour. Now it demands a certain level of unemployment, because that makes labour cheaper and also makes it more difficult for workers to organise.

For big business it’s great because they have a ‘fl exible’ labour force they can turn on and off like a tap. That’s good for their balance sheet, but a disaster for society’s long-term interests. And as the current Government continues its attacks on the welfare system, social housing and more, the situation for many young people is going from bad to worse.

The only hope is politics. This is a political situation, and it’s only political struggle that will change it. Students need to grow up knowing about the need for workers’ organisation, the role of trade unions and the long struggle for workers’ rights. They need to learn about revolutionary ideas throughout history – what they are, how they came about, when they’ve succeeded and failed, and what the lessons are.

History and politics are crucial, because if you understand a subject it gives you hope. It’s like an illness. If all you see are the symptoms, you despair. But if you go to a doctor who says ‘this is the treatment, this is how we can begin to cure the problem’, then you have hope. When it comes to young people understanding history and politics, teachers are the doctors.

I believe that a sense of work being fulfi lling is the most important thing to learn at school. Without that you struggle in life. Teachers should support and guide students, of course, but also be demanding of them, and tough on them if they aren’t hard-working.

Kids need to learn how to learn. They need to know how to organise what they learn and their approach to learning. And they need to apply themselves to gain that sense of satisfaction from work that will stay with them throughout their lives.

Teachers know the problems in schools and education better than anyone else. By valuing their trade unions and organising within them they can use their tremendous collective strength to tackle these issues. So I would urge all teachers to join a union and respect its democratic decision-making. Recognise that playing a part in your union is your way of taking control, of not just being used by politicians.

Obviously pay and conditions are the bedrock of any union activity, but in the case of teaching unions teachers also consider what’s best for their profession, which means what’s best for the children as well. Teachers mustn’t be afraid to go back to fi rst principles of what makes a good education, and defi ne and defend that alongside their pay and conditions.