In August we shall have our annual ‘assessment’ of education standards and our perennial outcry over falling standards. The A-Level and GCSE results are but one of the many incomplete and misleading indicies in which we project our notions of education into.
Gordon Brown, inheriting a country with a profound distrust of politicians, faces a key challenge in trying to overhaul our failing approach to education that is failing our young people.
The New Labour obsession with targets was one of Blair’s primary weapons in convincing the public that a Labour government can spend public money accountably. In education these targets, means by which we judge the governments success with education, are based on the numerous examinations that kids are put under. Every three years we test our youth’s aptitude of English, maths and science (whatever that means), the results supposedly giving us a clear illustration of how successful our education system is. The limited scope, means and ambition of these targets lift the lid on just how fundamentally flawed our approach to education is.
Recently, a study found Britain to be one of the worst places in the world to be a child. Both a cause and consequence of this is the apparent ‘anti-social behaviour’ of much of youth culture. Though the topic is poisoned with class snobberies (in both directions), I’d argue that the disillusioned, alienated, and too often aggressive culture that pervades is an essential issue facing our society (terrorism, supposedly the gravest threat to our society has caused a fraction of the misery in comparison). Given that our kids are subjected to six hours of school, five days a week (until they take matters into their own hands), the obvious place to start, when looking at this issue, is our schools. And where better then Labour’s very own targets?
These suggest that under 10 years of Labour management schooling is improving, yet our children are seemingly unhappier and face more problems with and in society. All of which, points to a (for there are a few) route of the problem – our conception of education. Notice that for all that the targets do include, there is no mention of social confidence, personal contentment, relationships with others etc. Obviously these are harder to index (though we happily measure anti-social-ness), but their absence illustrates the misplacement of our priorities with education.
Our teacher training, national curriculum and targets by which we evaluate education should include wider personal and social issues. Key social factors such as identity, relationships and (imagined) concepts of race and gender our harnessed at school, yet completely ignored by educators. When this alienation manifests itself in society we are all suddenly surprised and offended.
Perhaps, rather then banning hoodies in shopping centers, or even hugging hoodies in shopping centers, we should have a radical and honest public debate about what education means, what we want from it, and how we should achieve it.
