Education Policy - What Education Policy???

To continue with my rant against some of the more negative government dictats in education, I see that the glorious Mr Balls (sorry to have to mention his name yet again!) is now proposing less centralised control by abandoning Labours flagship programme which saw teaching methods centrally prescribed. The Labour Party Education Group can hardly be said to have been over zealous in their review of their prescribed teaching methods. It has taken them all of twenty years (YES TWENTY YEARS) to realise how disastrous their educational policies have been, and what a detrimental and damaging effect they have had.

But whilst Ed Balls does suggest that there will be less centralised control, he still fails in ridding the country of the old failed policies. He still clings on to the mantra of “accountability” which means the abnegation of personal responsibility. He still asserts the importance of “standards”, apparently assuming that tests and targets are of vital importance, when in truth standards in critical thinking, creativity, social awareness and communication skills have all plummeted!

In a recent article by Cedric Cullingford (Professor of Education at Huddersfield University) he states:-

There should be two key principles in Educational Policy.

The first, a finding that holds true in every country in the world, is that the less centralisation there is, the better the performance of teachers, and therefore, pupils.

The second is that pupils have a desire to learn. This need to understand is distorted and suppressed by a system which insists on imposing facts.

All the best teachers do their work by not taking too much notice of statutory orders; the best schools are those that ignore them.

Experiences, and therefore education in the broadest sense, and not just the imposed curriculum, are of crucial importance, but these experiences that form character are subtle, social and emotional. Nothing could contrast more clearly with the centrally prescribed National Curriculum, with its lack of vision and batteries of tests.

One day there may be a change in the educational system, which will be based on reality rather than political clichés.

I would wholeheartedly agree with Professor Cullingford. During my time in schools I invariably ignored much of the statutory orders which arrived via the education office with amazing regularity, and these invariably finished up in the circular filing cabinet (i.e. the waste paper basket!)

This heavy handed central prescribing has led to a loss of all those teachers we remember from our own schooldays. The one's who were "characters", the ones who inspired us to progress within their fields of study, the ones who didn't slavishly follow the statutory orders, but thought for themselves, and taught in a far more inspired way than many of those teachers who followed the "orders."

I recall the English Master at my Grammar School, who had a genuine love of his subject. I still read the books we used during my time at Grammar School - "Moonfleet" by J Meade Faulkner, "A Pattern of Islands" and "Return to the Islands" by Arthur Grimble.

I vividly remember HL , the physics master, who had had an arm injury during the war, and as a result had lost his sense of touch. He could wallop any miscreant and send him hurtling across the physics lab - yet he was adored by all his pupils. Everybody passed physics because they didn't want to disappoint him! How long would he last in education today? Yet he got far better and higher results than we ever see today. When we had filled an exercise book we had to produce it as evidence that we needed a new book. Many is the time that a pupil would approach HL with the cry of, "Please Sir me books full" - invariably came the reply "And your heads empty!"

Then there was the Music Mistress, who had a wonderful way of keeping children from playing about on the piano. The first lesson she warned all the class that the lid was dangerously loose and could fall on them and trap their fingers. The first time she caught a pupil messing about on the piano she would deftly flip the lid down onto their hand. I was inspired by her to take music and teaching up as my career. How long would she last in education now?

God Bless 'em all. All long departed, but all an inspiration to the raw pupils they got at 11 years old.