TRISTRAM HUNT'S promise at the weekend that for profit schooling would "never happen under a Labour government" is important.

Wishful thinking might hear that as a pledge to abolish what is euphemistically known as the "independent sector" in schooling - private schools. That's unlikely from a man who attended a private school himself. 

The existence of private schools is often taken for granted, but it should not be. The 7 per cent of Britons who attend them gobble up a much higher proportion of the seats in Parliament and senior roles in the public and private sectors than they ought to.

Private schools remain a bastion of ruling class privilege, ripe for storming. But with parasitical profiteers eyeing up our state schools, Mr Hunt's pledge - which of course applies only to publicly funded schools - is welcome news. 

We know that the Conservatives, whatever their denials, are in favour of for-profit schools. We'd have known it even if the Liberal Democrats had not been spurred by self interest to attempt to blow the whistle on former education secretary Michael Gove's plans.

As in the NHS or whatever public service we care to name, the Conservatives are wedded to an ideology that insists introducing the profit motive always pays dividends - which it does, if you are a Tory donor who owns an outsourcing firm. 

Labour's shadow health secretary used a medical analogy when addressing NASUWT's conference on Saturday, condemning - rightly - the "initiative-itis" which sees the goalposts constantly moved for schools, teachers and pupils alike. 

He did not reference a more familiar disease - the global education reform movement, or Germ.

This is a drive towards a marketised, consumer product vision of schooling which likes behind the endless testing of our children, the obsession with competition, the absurd weight of bureaucracy forced on teachers and the shift away from locally accountable schools.

Germ is an international problem, as the NUT's Gawain Little explained in the Morning Star's special education supplement published last week.

It softens up education for private sector involvement and much of what has been done to our education system is directed towards that end - most obviously the attack on teachers' right to nationally agreed pay and conditions.

The infection can be fought off and our teaching unions have scored notable victories against it.

Wales, where NASUWT is currently holding its conference, and Scotland have not introduce academies and "free" schools. 

At British level the Tories' chief ideologue Gove was forced out of the Department for Education, largely because of the scale of resistance he had provoked from the teaching unions. 

Anyone who keeps an eye on the Daily Telegraph or other right-leaning newspapers will see how much this victory still rankles. 

The Prime Minister is frequently reproached for having got cold feet and ditched his ally.

But with or without Gove, the for-profit brigade are still coming for our schools and the direction of travel has not been reversed. 

Mr Hunt says Labour sill stop creating "free" schools, ensure schools are built where they are needed rather than to undermine existing institutions, insist on our children being taught by qualified teachers and reform Ofsted so teachers have more say in how they are evaluated.

But he also refuses to countenance the return of existing "free" schools and academies to local authority control and thus democratic accountability. 

And he has refused to rule out baseline testing - forcing young children to take tests which will be used to determine their "expected" achievements as soon as they arrive at school - although the Labour administration in Wales has done exactly that.

There are powerful vested interests in marketising education. A Labour government will have to do more than tread water to take them on.