Tag: education

by Sara Forrest, Commission Member

The last few weeks have featured the seasonal reporting of the exam results for the majority of the 16 and 18 year olds in the UK. Great fuss is made of the improving results and the joy of those who have achieved the grades they wanted.  But what about those who are disappointed? Yesterday, following the death of Dolly Parton,  reporting was about literacy and the high number of adults in the UK who struggle to read.

State education was introduced to enable those from poorer backgrounds to increase their learning and earning. Yet after 100+ years  it is apparent that the exam results achieved in the poorer areas in the country significantly lag behind those in more affluent areas. Why is this so? One reason may be that the exam Boards were originally created by Universities to enable them to select on merit those who would benefit most from their ongoing studies. There was a system of vocational qualifications established by different industries and occupations and employers expected their new staff to complete such occupational qualifications.

In my day 1 in 10 18 year olds went onto further academic study. 1 in 6 students were girls.  Now a much higher proportion of 18 year olds continue to study and the gender split is approximately 50/50. Major employers and the Forces would sponsor the brightest students who would gain work experience in vacations and be expected to join their workforce for a period post graduation.

But many occupational qualifications, such as teaching, physiotherapy, radiography, nursing and other public sector jobs now require a degree. Yesterday a women explained how she felt ‘thick' at school because she struggled to read, but having raised her children she wanted to be a midwife so she went to the local college and spoke to them. They helped her to improve her reading and do an access course and she is now a midwife. Two of my daughter's friends who received Educational Maintenance Allowance due to low family income, went to University to do Childhood Studies. They graduated with Student Debt. On graduation one decided to work in a Nursery, the other as a Teaching Assistant. They then did courses at FE College that they could have done at 18……..

Not everyone thrives in the education system but that is not a reflection of their ability to do a professional job.

I think there is a dissonance between a system that aims to produce great academic results to age 18, defining and measuring and monitoring the achievements of each pupil and within which the teachers are adamant that such a  judgemental regime, OFSTED, should not apply to their performance. Seems hypocritical to me.  I ran many courses for managers regarding performance management and the accent was always on identifying an individual’s strengths and assigning work that played to those strengths. It marries knowledge and skill but still recognises that within the workplace there is some flexibility on how a task is done. It was so important that everyone felt their worth was recognised so they were motivated. It seems to me that our education does not create that sense of worth which can lead to disengagement.

About 15/20  years ago Julie was made redundant from her job managing a team of 50 people. She found work as a learning mentor in a senior school and loved it.  One of the teachers encouraged her to qualify as a teacher and get paid more.  She decided to go to University and do a degree in Business Studies followed by a Post Grad Certificate of Education.  She was puzzled when she attended the interview for the PGSE because the first stage was that she was asked to write the story of her journey to the interview. She did so. At the end of the interview she was asked if she had any questions, she queried why she had been asked to write the story. She was told that it was a good way for them to weed out the graduates who could not write in grammatical sentences and explain something simple in good English!

About 20 years ago when I worked in the security industry, at the time it was believed that about 25% had poor literacy, we used that test on job applicants to check that they would be able to read enough to pass the mandatory test that they needed to go on site and work.

Gary left school at 16 to work on a factory production line. He decided to do Maths and English GCSEs when his children started secondary school. A College tutor recommending he considered a teaching degree via an Access Course as he felt he had the ability to be a good teacher. He went to Uni and spent some time as a primary school teacher.He now works in an FE College teaching the students whose English and Maths is holding them back from passing their occupational qualifications. He uses the same techniques as were used in their primaries but these pupils can be more motivated to learn once they see the purpose of such learning.

Our system is failing too many of our young people.  I pray that the discussions around the work being done by Aslan Milburn will continue to look at the way the whole system works and gain the traction and funding needed to create pupils who understand their worth, their abilities and what motivates them so that they can progress to adulthood feeling engaged in society and positive about their future.