Remove ideology and education will recover
A month before he became Prime Minister, Gordon Brown delivered a remarkably honest speech about the state of our schools. After a decade of Labour government and an unprecedented level of public investment, the country was "still some way off being world class". Wednesday's Ofsted report on the state of England's schools in 2007 confirms Mr Brown's gloomy assessment. One pupil in five left primary school without a proper grasp of English and mathematics. More than half of 16-year-olds left school without decent GCSEs (that is, five A to Cs, including English and maths). "To compare favourably with the best in the world," said Christine Gilbert, Ofsted's chief inspector, "education in England must do better". And when compared with the rest of the world, the situation is even gloomier. In the international rankings of leading economies, since 2000 we have dropped from fourth to 14th place in science, seventh to 17th in literacy, from eighth to 24th in maths. Yet how can this be? Each year, we read that our examination results are getting better. So festooned with As and A*s are applicants to our leading universities that new entrance examinations are being devised to search out the most talented. In reality, an examination system that has lost much of its credibility has for years masked the fact that the comprehensive education model has been -*test*-('")ed to destruction. It is failing to produce the highly skilled workforce everyone agrees is crucial if we are to prosper in the future. Comprehensives are failing because too many are infused with the 1960s liberal orthodoxies that still permeate teacher training and which place too much store on equality, not enough on excellence. They are failing because discredited mixed-ability teaching continues in too many schools, against the wishes of ministers. And they are failing because even inspirational head teachers are being smothered by the red tape emanating each day from county hall and Whitehall. In its heart of hearts, the Government knows that comprehensives are not the answer - hence its drive for academy schools which are, in another guise, the Conservative grant-maintained schools Labour scrapped when it came to power. Unsurprisingly, the Tories are also keen on the academy programme. This at least is progress. Remove ideology from state schooling and we may make progress. If some sound principles could then be made universal - real autonomy for heads, classroom discipline, setting by ability, the primacy of academic achievement, a strong institutional ethos - then that dream of world class education might just prove achievable. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/20/dl2001.xml
A month before he became Prime Minister, Gordon Brown delivered a remarkably honest speech about the state of our schools. After a decade of Labour government and an unprecedented level of public investment, the country was "still some way off being world class". Wednesday's Ofsted report on the state of England's schools in 2007 confirms Mr Brown's gloomy assessment. One pupil in five left primary school without a proper grasp of English and mathematics. More than half of 16-year-olds left school without decent GCSEs (that is, five A to Cs, including English and maths). "To compare favourably with the best in the world," said Christine Gilbert, Ofsted's chief inspector, "education in England must do better". And when compared with the rest of the world, the situation is even gloomier. In the international rankings of leading economies, since 2000 we have dropped from fourth to 14th place in science, seventh to 17th in literacy, from eighth to 24th in maths. Yet how can this be? Each year, we read that our examination results are getting better. So festooned with As and A*s are applicants to our leading universities that new entrance examinations are being devised to search out the most talented. In reality, an examination system that has lost much of its credibility has for years masked the fact that the comprehensive education model has been -*test*-('")ed to destruction. It is failing to produce the highly skilled workforce everyone agrees is crucial if we are to prosper in the future. Comprehensives are failing because too many are infused with the 1960s liberal orthodoxies that still permeate teacher training and which place too much store on equality, not enough on excellence. They are failing because discredited mixed-ability teaching continues in too many schools, against the wishes of ministers. And they are failing because even inspirational head teachers are being smothered by the red tape emanating each day from county hall and Whitehall. In its heart of hearts, the Government knows that comprehensives are not the answer - hence its drive for academy schools which are, in another guise, the Conservative grant-maintained schools Labour scrapped when it came to power. Unsurprisingly, the Tories are also keen on the academy programme. This at least is progress. Remove ideology from state schooling and we may make progress. If some sound principles could then be made universal - real autonomy for heads, classroom discipline, setting by ability, the primacy of academic achievement, a strong institutional ethos - then that dream of world class education might just prove achievable. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/20/dl2001.xml