Every Parent Matters

Who would want to be Ed Balls the education secretary? Sorry, the Secretary of state for children, schools and families (DCSF). Maybe therein lays the answer. This hugely diverse role fails to mention education in the title, yet it is education that will set the future course for the UK, and it is in education where we are failing, badly.

The debate into statutory assessment tests (SAT) has become acrimonious. The secretary for the DCSF wishes to change the format and add to the list of already abandoned tests. The reaction at sharp end in teaching is unequivocal. One teachers union bearing the substantial title of The National Association of Schoolmasters and Women Teachers ( NASUWT) claims they will strike if the tests are abandoned, another The National Unions of Teachers will strike if they remain. Ed Balls states he is “caught in between a rock and hard place.” But also caught in the middle our children anxiously await sense and reason. It’s their future we are mucking about with.

The demands of society and the global economy are evolving dramatically during the schooling journey of any child. Apart from tweaks to the curriculum, the standard of learning achievement has failed to match the pace of change. The system has certainly failed to track consistently with developments in technology. Advances in nearly all avenues of modern achievement have been largely unmatched in the field of education. Our systems and procedures continue to fail children at primary level delivering an almost impossible catch-up challenge to secondary schools.

The current debate centres on the SAT’s. Ostensibly tracking the achievement of a child and a key measure of the effectiveness of the teaching resources, they unfortunately follow the twists and turns of many target driven corporate objectives, and fraught with an unhealthy degree of manipulation. Critically, teaching capacity has been focused on the “teach to test syndrome” where children are groomed to pass tests at the expense of a wider broader based education that would enthuse both children and teachers alike. The desire to inflate achievement has taken the fun out of learning. Maths games and English games to stimulate educational interest are abandoned in preference to test drilling exercises.

The current debate concerns the removal or rescheduling of key stage 2 SAT’s taken by 11 year old’s. In view of criticism of the testing versus teaching focus this seems a good move, but as ever the devil is in the detail. Unleashing a knock on problem of additional bureaucracy and work load has created the rift within the teaching fraternity. Testing at primary level is essential to identify potential performance at secondary, as without this secondary schools initially run blind with each years intake. The new scheme requires this to be completed when the child is ready rather than at set times. Teachers state this will cause a massive increase in workload and create even further disruption and depletion of the educational resources.

Thus some alternative measure of a child’s performance system is essential. Ironically the SAT key stage 2 replaced the 11+ which had the same function in 1987. Some improvement. Ed Balls says he does not want to rush into any decision. Perhaps this will give him the opportunity to listen to the guys steering the boat. Teachers have profound knowledge of what works and what does not in their own environment. Surely they should command the solution rather than costly bureaucrats whose theory appears to fail. In view of the cut backs in education wasting valuable resources in an in fight is not the way forward and would avoid the leviathan drawback of the National Health where managers now outnumber doctors.

Ed Balls has the unenviable task of sorting things out. Decisions taken now have an implication for generations to come. Daunting perhaps but he also has the opportunity to evolve an educational programme that could be the envy of the world. We are not alone; most English speaking countries have similar issues with schooling. Ed Balls could stand high as the first Minister to evolve a new educational policy that is fit for purpose for the next 20 years. We would all dearly thank him.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 4:30 am and is filed under News for Parents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.