When the Socialists took control of our educational system thirty or so years ago, and began to systematically destroy traditional education, the slogan that they used to justify their actions was "equality of opportunity". Of course, everyone knows that there can be no such thing as equality of opportunity in life, because life is not a race for an established prize - everyone has different aspirations and different abilities. Nevertheless, it was a persuasive slogan to those who did not think too deeply about it, and the majority acquiesced, or at least did not raise any objections to the rape of traditional education, and the lowering of academic standards.

Today the true colours of the Hard Left, and the naiveté of the majority have been made clear, because the Hard Left is no longer talking about "equality of opportunity", but rather of "equality of attainment" In other words, regardless of how intelligent or unintelligent students are, regardless of what talents they have, and regardless of how hard they have worked, everyone must receive the same grades, must be considered equal scholastically, and must have access to the same jobs. Under no circumstances is anyone allowed to be shown to be scholastically inferior to others.

In order to maintain this fiction, the one thing that must be avoided at all costs are tests, because tests give objective results. That is why the teachers' unions in England (who, of course, are controlled by the Hard Left) have been resisting any kind of testing so strongly. Although only roughly 20 per cent of the teachers are members of the unions, nevertheless the union's influence is strong. At the moment, in the state school system, grades are determined only by "coursework" (i.e. student papers, on which it is easy for students to have outside help) and by "teacher assessment" of classwork, which is, of course, purely subjective opinion. Indeed it was recently reported in the press that a suggestion in a state school to give the students homework was firmly turned down by the authorities of the school. The explanation given was, "Everyone might not be able to do it". Under such conditions, there is no such thing as real education - there is only fantasy.