Route to a fairer society

(Extract from Forever Learning, p170)

In the short term I am happy to use education as a means of equalising opportunities because I want young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to be able to enter any occupation. But in the longer term we need to break the link between education and the prospect of high salaries. We should be talking less about equal opportunities to succeed in the arena of widely differing levels of remuneration and more about ensuring a good rate of pay for everyone. It is time we valued all jobs properly and recognised the immense contribution to society of those employed in low-paid occupations – the care workers, the shelf stackers, the shop assistants, the van drivers, the hospital cleaners and many more. This is a far better route to a fairer society than basing job prospects on how well pupils do at school. If we teach children from primary school onwards that all jobs are worthwhile, contribute to society and deserve to be well remunerated, we will be heading in the new, more equitable direction that some of us would like to see. (see Chapter 7 also)