There is insufficient mention of the issues relating to “faith” schools and selection. I have the following comment, under Inequality/Disadvantage:
Overt and covert selection helps to perpetuate inequality from generation to generation. Nick Clegg’s speech to the Manifesto Conference on 12/01/08 promised to oppose all forms of selection. This needs to include selection on religious grounds, which is not only highly divisive in its own right (segregating children on the basis of their parents’ religion, as practiced in Northern Ireland), but also serves as a cover for covert selection by ability (cf the recent Government report on Faith schools cheating in the selection process, and the well known phenomenon of middle class parents faking religion to get their children into a good school).
I can’t find mention of the one bit of nationally asserted, law-endorsed discrimination, namely against those of us who do not have a religion. I have a newborn son and when he goes to school, I will be faced with a limited choice of schools or of subjecting him to a faith-based “ethos”. When in school, I will also be faced with the choice of separating him out from his schoolmates by withdrawing him from assembly or of subjecting him to religious indoctrination. It is one thing to teach children about religion, it is quite another to teach that having a religion is a good thing. We need to separate church and state and guarantee freedom for all of us.
Very nice, but what about faith schools? They seem to me to be selective in a rather furtive way. And, by their very nature, they work against integration.
We do not seem to be addressing the problem of faith schools and the divisions that they create in our society. I realise that this is a difficult issue for the Party to take on board but we are Liberals and should not fear stepping where other fear to tread.
I taught for 35 year in a wide spectrum of schools, both State funded and Independent: state schools in Apartheid South Africa, Independent schools in South Africa as well as England, a Preparatory School, a Secondary Independent school, a Grammar School, Steiner School and also a Jockeys’ Academy. Here the apprentices were also given an academically very successful education up to A-level standard in spite of having less than half the prescribed hours in the classroom.
I am not a researcher and cannot quote chapter and verse to back-up my statements. However, experience should be as valid an argument as figures, tables and statistics.
Summary of ideas
• Small community schools in which children, parents and teachers are all known to each other.
• A mobile schooling system in which children and adolescents can move freely according to their various abilities; let us speak and think of Activity Groups rather than classes/years/forms.
• No examinations during the school years, but entrance examinations set and administered by institutions which want to take in young people for further education, training or employment when they leave school.
• Government should provide equal funds for every child in education and then withdraw.
• Management structures of schools as they exist now are diabolically complex and inefficient because schools are too big and unwieldy.
A plea
Please acknowledge that we cannot speak of children and adolescents as if they are one and the same. There MUST be different approaches for the pre-pubescent, the pubescent and then the young adult. The present arrangement of Key Stages was possibly meant to acknowledge the difference, but it has completely slipped through the net of consciousness.
Activity Groups – perhaps a new name, but not a new idea.
‘Failing’ is such an abominable word, but a system that is geared towards progressing on a basic skills scale within Activity Groups would be a fine thing, rescuing innumerable of our children from a sense of failure. So many of them, under the present system, go to school and by having to face poor marks day in and day out, or realising that they are falling behind the rest of their peers for an endless 12 years or more, end up believing what the system tells them: they cannot achieve success.
Instead of having ‘classes’ in which children all have to operate at more or less the same level and where there is little space to maneuver for the child who excels in one area but not in another, Activity Groups focusing on particular skills or knowledge could be the answer This would allow children and adolescents to move from one to the other when they have achieved a certain level of competence. A simple meeting between teacher, parents and child could determine when it would be the right for the youngster to move on. The seven year old who reads, understands and can respond at the same level as a twelve year old should not be in the same classroom situation as the child who, at seven, is still struggling to come to grips with phonics.
At the same time the brilliant seven year old reader might be rather slow when it comes to catching or kicking a ball or possibly musically or artistically, and should be given the opportunity to develop these skills at their own pace and within a group of children whose achievements match their own.
This is how children learn that they have different abilities, strengths and weaknesses and it is good and healthy that it is so. These differences are what make a society work. And your abilities and aspirations, whatever they are, make you a worthy member of society.
Achieving full potential and Individuality
A tired, meaningless phrase. How do you know when you have ‘reached your full potential’? Not possible. But yes, and an absolute YES to giving children an opportunity to ‘develop their aspirations, skills and knowledge’.
However, aspirations are as individual as finger prints and we all aspire to acquire different skills and knowledge once we become aware of our individuality, at the age of about 14. Yet a society is duty bound to develop its youth as fully as possible by not limiting the school curriculum at any stage.
Our children are too young when they go to school
This is possibly the most damaging of all the sins that we good English people commit in education. It is a fact and the evidence is out there that formal education that starts too early harms a child who is not ready for it. Thankfully more and more is being said about this, which will hopefully lead to action.
What kinds of schools?
No faith schools, no schools with ‘specialisms’, no schools run by businesses; only community schools, community schools and community schools again with clearly defined catchment areas; small schools (maximum 300 for Primaries and 500 for Secondaries, preferablly smaller), run by the communities which they serve. And community implies that all the children, parents and teachers will know each other and will be empowered by that fact to participate in creating the best school, which will serve the community’s needs and, above all, aspirations.
The concepts of ‘educational inequality and disadvantage’ disappear when a community becomes responsible for educating its children and the government provides equal funding for all children.
A system of small, community based schools, run by the community, is in place in Sweden. It can be done here too; it is not only best for the children, the adolescents, the community and the future of the nation, but it is also enormously cost effective. There cannot be a single valid argument against small, efficient community schools in which everyone has a right to and responsibility for helping children to grow into confident, happy and well-educated citizens.
Schooling is an opportunity to educate, to accompany a child and eventually an adolescent into the adult world where s/he will function best if s/he is well equipped with a wide spectrum of skills, knowledge and understanding. It is neither the time nor the place to specialise.
The International Baccalaureate, acknowledging the value of a wide knowledge and skills base, is preferable to restrictive A-levels.
Literacy and Numeracy, and Rate of Development.
It is a sine qua non to develop basic literacy and numeracy skills in order to function in the modern world. There are no ifs or buts about this essential. And, if one looks at societies like that of Iceland, a 99% literacy rate is achievable. (interestingly enough my spell check does not recognise ‘numeracy’!)
Because these are key skills no child who has not developed them should, as happens at present, be put into a position where s/he has to cope with acquiring knowledge that depends on his/her ability to read and or write or manipulate numbers.
There is as much need to attend to the needs of the child and adolescent whose ability to think analytically and objectively is superior (generally referred to as ‘bright’) as there is to look after and encourage the ‘SEN’ child. At the moment there is a terrible and criminal neglect of the ‘gifted’ child.
Activity groups would make allowances for intellectual growth spurts, rather than the child having to match his/her development with a pace set by the government of the day. An impossibility.
Howard Gardner’s ‘Multiple intelligences’ should be carefully scrutinised and be absorbed into the ethos of all teaching methods and situations.
Examinations
When considering examinations the most important fact to acknowledge is that a universal, externally set examination cannot and will never be able to reflect anyone’s knowledge or skills. At best it tests what a person does not know, while the vast bank of useful knowledge and insights that we all have, whether children, adolescents or adults, will not be fathomed by sitting a two or three hour examination.
What is true is that an examination can determine whether a young person is suitable for a particular field of study or particular employment or training if it is designed to do that. The question therefore arises whether these are not the places for entrance examinations: colleges, universities, employers, training institutions. An entrance examination set by one of the above institutions will have far greater authority than SATS, GCSEs or A-Levels.
The results of a universal, externally set examination should not determine what is taught or how it is taught. It denies individuality: individual aspirations, needs, abilities and interests. You cannot in one breath say ‘society has a duty to empower every individual to achieve their full potential through developing their aspirations, skills and knowledge’ and then use one yardstick to determine and design one policy, one strategy, one method for all. It is a logical impertinence of the crassest kind.
Curriculum
What kind of people do we want our children to develop into? Allow me to hazard a guess: we want to share our society with morally aware, well-informed and capable people who have a strong sense of their own self-worth and their responsibilities to their family and community: their immediate community and that of the wider community in which they do not live, but on which they are dependent, ultimately, for their financial security and quality of life.
This should lead to a curriculum that teaches a child the basic skills of literacy and numeracy and, dare I add, of honest and logical argument. And added to this, give the child, and later the adolescent, the opportunity to absorb as much knowledge as they are able to while acknowledging, accepting and even celebrating the limitations that individual interests and abilities will bring.
A sense of History, of cause and effect is essential if one is to negotiate one’s way successfully through life, as is an understanding of the geography and ecology of the earth from which we live; the natural sciences go a long way to engendering a sense of wonder and humility in all of us and makes development of new and more effective technologies possible; language, music, art, drama help us to communicate while sport, dancing an all other physical activities keep us fit and strong and integrate body and mind. All of these are essentials.
But, because most of us seem to be born with natural limitations or excellences in one field or another, children should not be held back or be robbed of their confidence by having to operate willy-nilly within their age group. Hence Activity Groups again where the level of teaching or activity is determined by the competence of the students.
The Government and School Management.
Government should stay as far away from schools as is possible unless they are asked to intervene in difficult circumstances, which could be a need for extra funding. Independent schools manage extremely well without the ‘help’ of the government imposing targets, curricula or management structures on them.
Community schools could function just as well as independent schools are functioning at the moment with the help of dedicated and competent teachers who should be employed by governing bodies drawn from parents and teachers of the school.
Head teachers should be just that. Teachers in the first instance and then someone who can advise, direct and consolidate the aspirations of the school community. ‘Management structures’ become redundant in small schools where discussion, consultation and interaction is a normal part of everyday school life and every member feels responsible and empowered to do what needs to be done.
Conclusion
This is a very imperfect response and by no means a complete answer to the education question. I nevertheless submit it humbly and hope that it will raise a few eyebrows and get an influential person or two to reconsider entrenched ideas and attitudes.
I would like to see our Party put more thought into the issue of faith schools. Apart from being intrinsically divisive, they also reduce choice for parents who don’t wish to expose their children to religious influences.
Furthermore, as church attendance continues to fall year on year, isn’t it odd that we continue to pump millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money into subsidising church schools?
I think we need to take a detailed look at exactly what, if anything, it is about faith schools that makes them better than non-faith schools. And if we find anything, then that should surely be applied to all schools.
As a PhD researcher on education policy and party member for 14 years, I would like to comment on several aspects.
1. Tension between equality and difference
I was struck by a tension that appears to lie at the heart of the consultation paper.
On one hand, it wants to reduce the differences in life opportunities between children of different backgrounds - this could be used to justify a common educational model for all students, with the differences resulting at the end of the process.
One the other hand, the paper wants to provide opportunities and space for alternative providers (religious, community, etc). This is what we currently have already and will only maintain the present difference and segregation.
2. A national curriculum?
I’m also struck in the curriculum section that the paper emphasises state schools and not private ones. Surely if social mobility is to be tackled then the entire school system needs to be considered rather than just one part.
3. Purpose of education/Teaching methods
Although the paper asks the question, ‘what is the purpose of education?’ it appears locked into its formal mode; i.e. what role do schools play. In particular this seems locked into a choice between the extent to which Lib Dems want management from the centre as opposed to local/school-led action. May I throw Freire into the mix as well? To what extent can his methods and educational philosophy (i.e. in which education is seen less as a process in which the teacher ‘deposits’ information into the student than as a collaborative process in which the educated realises his or her social and economic situation in society and seeks to overcome it) be used - or indeed should be used?
I ask this since this seems (to me at least!) the dilemma at the heart of the formal educational system, since it tends to reflect a society rather than challenges it. And if the aim is to challenge social difference and segregation (or influence social mobility) then what is being proposed seeks to undermine the formal system. In other words it isn’t possible to achieve comprehensive change without substantive political change too. It’s a choice between a political reform or revolution, which I wonder whether Lib Dems - given our predeliction for reforming the system - are best placed to make.
My contribution is to instill the love of learning and to learn life skills such as listening, being empathic, high self esteem, the power of focusing on what you want and having a mission in life.
In some areas those between 16 and 19 have the choice between schools, sixth form colleges and FE colleges. I
In other areas all schools are 5 to 16 only and ALL 16+ education takes placer in FE colleges or Tertiary colleges.
Although there are “National pay scales” for FE teachers, few colleges pay them. Funding per FE student is much lower than for schools and an unhealthily large proportion of a college’s funding ha to be used to employ staff to administer the unnecessarily complex funding system.
The result is that FE college teacher’s pay has fallen way below that of school teachers with similar qualifications, experience and responsibilities.
To keep good quality graduates in FE colleges Government introduced a one way valve, allowing school teaching qualifications to qualify for FE teaching, but not recognising FE teaching qualifications or experience for school teaching. However many of the FE teachers so trapped into low salaries have now retired and FE colleges have serious staffing problem for both academic and technical subjects.
This is bad news for those who live in areas where all A levels are done at an FE Tertiary college, and whose parents cannot afford to transport them to an area with sixth form colleges or sixth forms.
In Braintree three school sixth forms and the FE college were closed and replaced by a single Tertiary College. This was a very good idea. It produced vaiable numbers for a wider range of courses and allowed academic/vocational mixed courses. An ideal solution for a small town surrounded by a large rural area.
However Tertiary Colleges were funded under FE not school rules. Funding was so tight that the college went into deficit. The situation was made worse by ineffective management when colleges were taken out of county control and made into Corporations controlled by lay governors.
Funding for subsequent students became even more inadequate as overspends were clawed back. The academic courses at the college collapsed and a school sixth form is reopening. This is very inefficient and is costing much more than it would have done to adequately finance the Tertiary college.
It is a solution for some, but others will have to travel to Colchester of Chelmsford to do the courses they require.
We need to bring back proper democratically controlled planned provision, by returning education to county or unitary control.
I believe that education should not have a start and finish, but should continue ‘lifelong’.Opportunities for all ages must be made available in all schools, encouraging middle aged and elderly to attend regularly. Schools are a place for education not just for giving but also for receiving.
I also have a strong belief that citizanship should be seperated and everyone give a three month service gathering learning of ‘Britishness’ and the advantages of community,respect for others,personal development and importance of rules which equally govern our small island.
As a young man deeply commited to the ‘freedom to’ aswell as the ‘freedom from’ I would like to see a HUGE change in education.
* Curriculum should be streamlined as much as possible, allowing parents, teachers and STUDENTS as much freedom as possible.
* GCSE, A-Level and Degree course lecturers from the best schools and universities should be available free on the internet on sites like youtube….this means EVERY Britian would have free access to an Oxbridge education. (This could seriously drive down the cost of further education by million is done properly and would allow the universities to spend the money on advertising abroad and dropping international tution fees to help boast our economy by education)
* A small job centre should be created in every secondary school, college, and university library - providing information on jobs available in the local area, courses available and gap year advice.
* All secondary schools should by law teach about credit cards, pensions, morgages, loans, taxes….this would give the average briton a basic insight into the way in which money can be retained and used wisely. (This in effect would almost work as a pay increase for most Britions as they would learn about ISA’s and pensions)
* All colleges and universities should be encouraged to be involved in politics. Although affliation to parties should not be condoned, debates among ALL of the political parties could take place during local elections. Bringing politics back to the grassroots.
* Headteachers could make webcasts every year to all parents identifying goals and reporting on the progress of schools. Making them accountable not only to their superiors but to parents
* Instead of giving free degrees to all, people should be made to make a (small, means-tested) personal contribution which would be re-imbursed on successful completion…..this would stop wasters clogging up valuable college and university places
* If surported by parents, languages such as French and German should be scrapped and replaced by community languages such as Polish or Punjabi, or Asian languages which may be needed in the future if the Asian economy continues to grow as much as is expected.
* Teachers should be given annual appraisal reports acessing their competence. Incompent teachers should be eventully fired.
* Vocational training, sport, or arts should be offered to as many children as possible during the summer holidays. This could be provided by local buisnesses, charities and colleges working alongside the schools. This will allow parents to continue working and it will keep children away from the lure of anti-social behaviour
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May 17th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
There is insufficient mention of the issues relating to “faith” schools and selection. I have the following comment, under Inequality/Disadvantage:
Overt and covert selection helps to perpetuate inequality from generation to generation. Nick Clegg’s speech to the Manifesto Conference on 12/01/08 promised to oppose all forms of selection. This needs to include selection on religious grounds, which is not only highly divisive in its own right (segregating children on the basis of their parents’ religion, as practiced in Northern Ireland), but also serves as a cover for covert selection by ability (cf the recent Government report on Faith schools cheating in the selection process, and the well known phenomenon of middle class parents faking religion to get their children into a good school).
May 18th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I can’t find mention of the one bit of nationally asserted, law-endorsed discrimination, namely against those of us who do not have a religion. I have a newborn son and when he goes to school, I will be faced with a limited choice of schools or of subjecting him to a faith-based “ethos”. When in school, I will also be faced with the choice of separating him out from his schoolmates by withdrawing him from assembly or of subjecting him to religious indoctrination. It is one thing to teach children about religion, it is quite another to teach that having a religion is a good thing. We need to separate church and state and guarantee freedom for all of us.
May 18th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Very nice, but what about faith schools? They seem to me to be selective in a rather furtive way. And, by their very nature, they work against integration.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
We do not seem to be addressing the problem of faith schools and the divisions that they create in our society. I realise that this is a difficult issue for the Party to take on board but we are Liberals and should not fear stepping where other fear to tread.
May 28th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Some thoughts on Education
Why I have something to say about education
I taught for 35 year in a wide spectrum of schools, both State funded and Independent: state schools in Apartheid South Africa, Independent schools in South Africa as well as England, a Preparatory School, a Secondary Independent school, a Grammar School, Steiner School and also a Jockeys’ Academy. Here the apprentices were also given an academically very successful education up to A-level standard in spite of having less than half the prescribed hours in the classroom.
I am not a researcher and cannot quote chapter and verse to back-up my statements. However, experience should be as valid an argument as figures, tables and statistics.
Summary of ideas
• Small community schools in which children, parents and teachers are all known to each other.
• A mobile schooling system in which children and adolescents can move freely according to their various abilities; let us speak and think of Activity Groups rather than classes/years/forms.
• No examinations during the school years, but entrance examinations set and administered by institutions which want to take in young people for further education, training or employment when they leave school.
• Government should provide equal funds for every child in education and then withdraw.
• Management structures of schools as they exist now are diabolically complex and inefficient because schools are too big and unwieldy.
A plea
Please acknowledge that we cannot speak of children and adolescents as if they are one and the same. There MUST be different approaches for the pre-pubescent, the pubescent and then the young adult. The present arrangement of Key Stages was possibly meant to acknowledge the difference, but it has completely slipped through the net of consciousness.
Activity Groups – perhaps a new name, but not a new idea.
‘Failing’ is such an abominable word, but a system that is geared towards progressing on a basic skills scale within Activity Groups would be a fine thing, rescuing innumerable of our children from a sense of failure. So many of them, under the present system, go to school and by having to face poor marks day in and day out, or realising that they are falling behind the rest of their peers for an endless 12 years or more, end up believing what the system tells them: they cannot achieve success.
Instead of having ‘classes’ in which children all have to operate at more or less the same level and where there is little space to maneuver for the child who excels in one area but not in another, Activity Groups focusing on particular skills or knowledge could be the answer This would allow children and adolescents to move from one to the other when they have achieved a certain level of competence. A simple meeting between teacher, parents and child could determine when it would be the right for the youngster to move on. The seven year old who reads, understands and can respond at the same level as a twelve year old should not be in the same classroom situation as the child who, at seven, is still struggling to come to grips with phonics.
At the same time the brilliant seven year old reader might be rather slow when it comes to catching or kicking a ball or possibly musically or artistically, and should be given the opportunity to develop these skills at their own pace and within a group of children whose achievements match their own.
This is how children learn that they have different abilities, strengths and weaknesses and it is good and healthy that it is so. These differences are what make a society work. And your abilities and aspirations, whatever they are, make you a worthy member of society.
Achieving full potential and Individuality
A tired, meaningless phrase. How do you know when you have ‘reached your full potential’? Not possible. But yes, and an absolute YES to giving children an opportunity to ‘develop their aspirations, skills and knowledge’.
However, aspirations are as individual as finger prints and we all aspire to acquire different skills and knowledge once we become aware of our individuality, at the age of about 14. Yet a society is duty bound to develop its youth as fully as possible by not limiting the school curriculum at any stage.
Our children are too young when they go to school
This is possibly the most damaging of all the sins that we good English people commit in education. It is a fact and the evidence is out there that formal education that starts too early harms a child who is not ready for it. Thankfully more and more is being said about this, which will hopefully lead to action.
What kinds of schools?
No faith schools, no schools with ‘specialisms’, no schools run by businesses; only community schools, community schools and community schools again with clearly defined catchment areas; small schools (maximum 300 for Primaries and 500 for Secondaries, preferablly smaller), run by the communities which they serve. And community implies that all the children, parents and teachers will know each other and will be empowered by that fact to participate in creating the best school, which will serve the community’s needs and, above all, aspirations.
The concepts of ‘educational inequality and disadvantage’ disappear when a community becomes responsible for educating its children and the government provides equal funding for all children.
A system of small, community based schools, run by the community, is in place in Sweden. It can be done here too; it is not only best for the children, the adolescents, the community and the future of the nation, but it is also enormously cost effective. There cannot be a single valid argument against small, efficient community schools in which everyone has a right to and responsibility for helping children to grow into confident, happy and well-educated citizens.
Schooling is an opportunity to educate, to accompany a child and eventually an adolescent into the adult world where s/he will function best if s/he is well equipped with a wide spectrum of skills, knowledge and understanding. It is neither the time nor the place to specialise.
The International Baccalaureate, acknowledging the value of a wide knowledge and skills base, is preferable to restrictive A-levels.
Literacy and Numeracy, and Rate of Development.
It is a sine qua non to develop basic literacy and numeracy skills in order to function in the modern world. There are no ifs or buts about this essential. And, if one looks at societies like that of Iceland, a 99% literacy rate is achievable. (interestingly enough my spell check does not recognise ‘numeracy’!)
Because these are key skills no child who has not developed them should, as happens at present, be put into a position where s/he has to cope with acquiring knowledge that depends on his/her ability to read and or write or manipulate numbers.
There is as much need to attend to the needs of the child and adolescent whose ability to think analytically and objectively is superior (generally referred to as ‘bright’) as there is to look after and encourage the ‘SEN’ child. At the moment there is a terrible and criminal neglect of the ‘gifted’ child.
Activity groups would make allowances for intellectual growth spurts, rather than the child having to match his/her development with a pace set by the government of the day. An impossibility.
Howard Gardner’s ‘Multiple intelligences’ should be carefully scrutinised and be absorbed into the ethos of all teaching methods and situations.
Examinations
When considering examinations the most important fact to acknowledge is that a universal, externally set examination cannot and will never be able to reflect anyone’s knowledge or skills. At best it tests what a person does not know, while the vast bank of useful knowledge and insights that we all have, whether children, adolescents or adults, will not be fathomed by sitting a two or three hour examination.
What is true is that an examination can determine whether a young person is suitable for a particular field of study or particular employment or training if it is designed to do that. The question therefore arises whether these are not the places for entrance examinations: colleges, universities, employers, training institutions. An entrance examination set by one of the above institutions will have far greater authority than SATS, GCSEs or A-Levels.
The results of a universal, externally set examination should not determine what is taught or how it is taught. It denies individuality: individual aspirations, needs, abilities and interests. You cannot in one breath say ‘society has a duty to empower every individual to achieve their full potential through developing their aspirations, skills and knowledge’ and then use one yardstick to determine and design one policy, one strategy, one method for all. It is a logical impertinence of the crassest kind.
Curriculum
What kind of people do we want our children to develop into? Allow me to hazard a guess: we want to share our society with morally aware, well-informed and capable people who have a strong sense of their own self-worth and their responsibilities to their family and community: their immediate community and that of the wider community in which they do not live, but on which they are dependent, ultimately, for their financial security and quality of life.
This should lead to a curriculum that teaches a child the basic skills of literacy and numeracy and, dare I add, of honest and logical argument. And added to this, give the child, and later the adolescent, the opportunity to absorb as much knowledge as they are able to while acknowledging, accepting and even celebrating the limitations that individual interests and abilities will bring.
A sense of History, of cause and effect is essential if one is to negotiate one’s way successfully through life, as is an understanding of the geography and ecology of the earth from which we live; the natural sciences go a long way to engendering a sense of wonder and humility in all of us and makes development of new and more effective technologies possible; language, music, art, drama help us to communicate while sport, dancing an all other physical activities keep us fit and strong and integrate body and mind. All of these are essentials.
But, because most of us seem to be born with natural limitations or excellences in one field or another, children should not be held back or be robbed of their confidence by having to operate willy-nilly within their age group. Hence Activity Groups again where the level of teaching or activity is determined by the competence of the students.
The Government and School Management.
Government should stay as far away from schools as is possible unless they are asked to intervene in difficult circumstances, which could be a need for extra funding. Independent schools manage extremely well without the ‘help’ of the government imposing targets, curricula or management structures on them.
Community schools could function just as well as independent schools are functioning at the moment with the help of dedicated and competent teachers who should be employed by governing bodies drawn from parents and teachers of the school.
Head teachers should be just that. Teachers in the first instance and then someone who can advise, direct and consolidate the aspirations of the school community. ‘Management structures’ become redundant in small schools where discussion, consultation and interaction is a normal part of everyday school life and every member feels responsible and empowered to do what needs to be done.
Conclusion
This is a very imperfect response and by no means a complete answer to the education question. I nevertheless submit it humbly and hope that it will raise a few eyebrows and get an influential person or two to reconsider entrenched ideas and attitudes.
May 29th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I would like to see our Party put more thought into the issue of faith schools. Apart from being intrinsically divisive, they also reduce choice for parents who don’t wish to expose their children to religious influences.
Furthermore, as church attendance continues to fall year on year, isn’t it odd that we continue to pump millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money into subsidising church schools?
I think we need to take a detailed look at exactly what, if anything, it is about faith schools that makes them better than non-faith schools. And if we find anything, then that should surely be applied to all schools.
June 9th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
As a PhD researcher on education policy and party member for 14 years, I would like to comment on several aspects.
1. Tension between equality and difference
I was struck by a tension that appears to lie at the heart of the consultation paper.
On one hand, it wants to reduce the differences in life opportunities between children of different backgrounds - this could be used to justify a common educational model for all students, with the differences resulting at the end of the process.
One the other hand, the paper wants to provide opportunities and space for alternative providers (religious, community, etc). This is what we currently have already and will only maintain the present difference and segregation.
2. A national curriculum?
I’m also struck in the curriculum section that the paper emphasises state schools and not private ones. Surely if social mobility is to be tackled then the entire school system needs to be considered rather than just one part.
3. Purpose of education/Teaching methods
Although the paper asks the question, ‘what is the purpose of education?’ it appears locked into its formal mode; i.e. what role do schools play. In particular this seems locked into a choice between the extent to which Lib Dems want management from the centre as opposed to local/school-led action. May I throw Freire into the mix as well? To what extent can his methods and educational philosophy (i.e. in which education is seen less as a process in which the teacher ‘deposits’ information into the student than as a collaborative process in which the educated realises his or her social and economic situation in society and seeks to overcome it) be used - or indeed should be used?
I ask this since this seems (to me at least!) the dilemma at the heart of the formal educational system, since it tends to reflect a society rather than challenges it. And if the aim is to challenge social difference and segregation (or influence social mobility) then what is being proposed seeks to undermine the formal system. In other words it isn’t possible to achieve comprehensive change without substantive political change too. It’s a choice between a political reform or revolution, which I wonder whether Lib Dems - given our predeliction for reforming the system - are best placed to make.
June 10th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
My contribution is to instill the love of learning and to learn life skills such as listening, being empathic, high self esteem, the power of focusing on what you want and having a mission in life.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:42 am
NOT ALL 5 to 19 EDUCATION TAKES PLACE IN SCHOOLS
In some areas those between 16 and 19 have the choice between schools, sixth form colleges and FE colleges. I
In other areas all schools are 5 to 16 only and ALL 16+ education takes placer in FE colleges or Tertiary colleges.
Although there are “National pay scales” for FE teachers, few colleges pay them. Funding per FE student is much lower than for schools and an unhealthily large proportion of a college’s funding ha to be used to employ staff to administer the unnecessarily complex funding system.
The result is that FE college teacher’s pay has fallen way below that of school teachers with similar qualifications, experience and responsibilities.
To keep good quality graduates in FE colleges Government introduced a one way valve, allowing school teaching qualifications to qualify for FE teaching, but not recognising FE teaching qualifications or experience for school teaching. However many of the FE teachers so trapped into low salaries have now retired and FE colleges have serious staffing problem for both academic and technical subjects.
This is bad news for those who live in areas where all A levels are done at an FE Tertiary college, and whose parents cannot afford to transport them to an area with sixth form colleges or sixth forms.
In Braintree three school sixth forms and the FE college were closed and replaced by a single Tertiary College. This was a very good idea. It produced vaiable numbers for a wider range of courses and allowed academic/vocational mixed courses. An ideal solution for a small town surrounded by a large rural area.
However Tertiary Colleges were funded under FE not school rules. Funding was so tight that the college went into deficit. The situation was made worse by ineffective management when colleges were taken out of county control and made into Corporations controlled by lay governors.
Funding for subsequent students became even more inadequate as overspends were clawed back. The academic courses at the college collapsed and a school sixth form is reopening. This is very inefficient and is costing much more than it would have done to adequately finance the Tertiary college.
It is a solution for some, but others will have to travel to Colchester of Chelmsford to do the courses they require.
We need to bring back proper democratically controlled planned provision, by returning education to county or unitary control.
August 25th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I wouldn’t consider a family that was forced to rely on any form of so-called ‘British’ education
I think that the problem lies in the very system of ‘catchment areas’
September 21st, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I believe that education should not have a start and finish, but should continue ‘lifelong’.Opportunities for all ages must be made available in all schools, encouraging middle aged and elderly to attend regularly. Schools are a place for education not just for giving but also for receiving.
I also have a strong belief that citizanship should be seperated and everyone give a three month service gathering learning of ‘Britishness’ and the advantages of community,respect for others,personal development and importance of rules which equally govern our small island.
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
As a young man deeply commited to the ‘freedom to’ aswell as the ‘freedom from’ I would like to see a HUGE change in education.
* Curriculum should be streamlined as much as possible, allowing parents, teachers and STUDENTS as much freedom as possible.
* GCSE, A-Level and Degree course lecturers from the best schools and universities should be available free on the internet on sites like youtube….this means EVERY Britian would have free access to an Oxbridge education. (This could seriously drive down the cost of further education by million is done properly and would allow the universities to spend the money on advertising abroad and dropping international tution fees to help boast our economy by education)
* A small job centre should be created in every secondary school, college, and university library - providing information on jobs available in the local area, courses available and gap year advice.
* All secondary schools should by law teach about credit cards, pensions, morgages, loans, taxes….this would give the average briton a basic insight into the way in which money can be retained and used wisely. (This in effect would almost work as a pay increase for most Britions as they would learn about ISA’s and pensions)
* All colleges and universities should be encouraged to be involved in politics. Although affliation to parties should not be condoned, debates among ALL of the political parties could take place during local elections. Bringing politics back to the grassroots.
* Headteachers could make webcasts every year to all parents identifying goals and reporting on the progress of schools. Making them accountable not only to their superiors but to parents
* Instead of giving free degrees to all, people should be made to make a (small, means-tested) personal contribution which would be re-imbursed on successful completion…..this would stop wasters clogging up valuable college and university places
* If surported by parents, languages such as French and German should be scrapped and replaced by community languages such as Polish or Punjabi, or Asian languages which may be needed in the future if the Asian economy continues to grow as much as is expected.
* Teachers should be given annual appraisal reports acessing their competence. Incompent teachers should be eventully fired.
* Vocational training, sport, or arts should be offered to as many children as possible during the summer holidays. This could be provided by local buisnesses, charities and colleges working alongside the schools. This will allow parents to continue working and it will keep children away from the lure of anti-social behaviour
Hope these are worth looking at
Steve
stevebrandnew@hotmail.co.uk