Focus on…an education spring

24th April 2013

 

Every Tuesday, SCHOOLS NorthEast sits down to write the ‘Focus On’ section for this weekly newsletter. Gathered around a table in our offices at Northumbria University, we discuss the merits of the announcements, news stories, research reports and data released in the preceding days.  Yesterday’s TechBacc launch seemed an obvious candidate so we pulled together all the news stories and comment and started writing. About 100 words in, we were struck by a strong sense of deja-vu.  A quick squiz on the SCHOOLS NorthEast website confirmed that back in December we had indeed “focused on … the TechBacc”.  There was precious little new information in the DfE press release from what we knew four months ago, so we started again on a search for a compelling topic - longer days/ shorter holidays, quality of preschool education, performance related pay …all issues that keep coming around every few months for another flurry of debate on twitter and in the education press about the ‘experiences in {delete as necessary} Finland/Sweden/Singapore/Canada’, ‘disputed evidence’ and ‘difficulties of implementation’.
Jaded and lacking motivation, SCHOOLS NorthEast began browsing the web when the words “we need fresh thinking” shone out like a beacon. The author was education guru and former Director at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, Mick Waters.  In transcript of a speech he gave last week, he calls for an “education spring – an uprising of passion and commitment to the role of schooling in the education of our young”.

 

The main thrust of his concerns, set out in his new book “Thinking Allowed on Schooling”, is that our schools are blighted by “politically-driven tinkering with an old-fashioned system”. Waters argues that for over 100 years, politicians have “sought to use the school system for short-term political gain by addressing the perceived problems of the day, be they social, economic or fabricated.”

 

It is time, claims Waters, for a “a radical new education manifesto” as the “ schooling system as it stands - distorted by whim, high stakes accountability and low trust - is no longer fit for purpose.”

 

He wants to see wider society, teachers, parents, employers and politicians come to a consensus around the aims and purpose of schooling and “develop a change-of-government proof system that holds to agreed courses of action.” To support this, a permanent body at arms' length from parliament and ministers – a National Council for Schooling - should be established, suggests Waters to “wrestle schooling away from meddlers and shaded advisors and place it back in the control of wider society”.

 

Waters’ manifesto includes:

 

  • Establishing a concordat for schooling as an all-party agreement to be supported over time, building on a consensus of needs around the purpose of schooling;
  • Setting minimum standards of provision for childhood and youth and building agreement about how the roles of schools, parents and community complement each other;
  • Clarity about aspiration as an outlook of worth, contribution and spirit, rather than simply exam passes and careers success;
  • An elected National Council for Schooling - contested by online national ballot to oversee aspects of school organisation and advise in national policy and practices in teaching as does NICE in health;
  • Parents redefined as contributors to the system rather than consumers of a commodity, who should support their local school rather than exploit the admissions process;
  • A levy on pupils who use schools further away from their home which would be directed to the school that is their nearest;
  • Possible licensing of teachers for five year periods with the continuation of the licence dependent upon effective professional development and contribution;
  • Ofsted judging schools on a good enough or not basis;
  • Lessons not to be seen as the sole unit of teaching.

 

Waters goes on to challenge our approach to the role of teaching, drawing parallels with the current discussions regarding the nursing profession - “just as nursing has recognised that holding nurses accountable for the narrow measurable activity of 'treatment' alone leads to a lack of attention to the central focus of 'compassion and care', so teaching has to recognise the danger of too narrow a focus on the technicalities of individual lessons” said Waters.

 

At fault for the problems in the system are high stakes, data-driven accountability, which Waters states “led to schools naturally 'playing the game' to achieve recognition rather than acting with educational integrity” and the influence of national politicians who are accused of “manipulating the school agenda for bigger policy outcomes than education”.  These influences act as a straightjacket on schools and hold back the profession, which all too often “acquiesces to the latest ministerial mood swing, complaining rather than being involved, sometimes grabbing the agenda with enthusiasm or funding”.

 

In a rallying cry to school leaders, Waters calls on them to be ‘schooling activists’ – to take control of the agenda and lead not plead using all channels of influence at their disposal.

 

Waters is one of a number of influential figures in education and beyond to attempt to instigate a debate about the purpose of education and the role of politics and politicians in our school system in recent months. ASCL and others have said that it is now time for a second ‘Great Debate’ about the future of education, 37 years after Lord Callaghan’s famous Ruskin College speech.  Yesterday, the College of Teaching launched its vision for a new Royal College of Teaching and teacher led petitions about the national curriculum have attracted thousands of signatures of support.

 

So, as the sun starts to show its face at last, are we about to see an educational spring? - What new ideas and approaches should bloom? How do we cultivate and nurture a schools system that allows all of our young people to blossom?

 

Tell us what would be in your manifesto for education at think@schoolsnortheast.com – we will publish your ideas in future newsletters.

 

This evening Mick Waters will be taking part in a live web chat on the Guardian Teacher Network between 6pm-7pm.