Back to basics in education

The local debate on the state of health of our educational system is often concerned with the micro issues that affect the day-to-day running of schools. We rarely focus on the big picture of whether our system is meeting the expectations of the stakeholders.

We are not short of platitudes on how our future prosperity depends on the quality of our education, or how important it is to keep pumping money into the system.

We build new schools at a time when the student population is decreasing for demographic reasons, but do little to ensure that these schools are properly equipped with the latest educational technology.

We spread our financial and human resources thinly over a multitude of courses but do not focus enough on those courses that give our young people a better chance of succeeding in the new economy.

We rarely engage in serious soul searching to determine why our attainment levels remain so low, even if we are amongst the EU countries that spend most on education.

We take pride in the number of graduates the system churns out, but fail to assess whether we are encouraging our students to go for the hardcore qualifications demanded by the knowledge economy rather that the soft, popular options.

To identify the weaknesses of our educational system, we often have to look elsewhere to see how others are tackling the issue of underachievement that is threatening their economic future.

The debate on the quality of education in countries like Italy and the UK exposes the great divisions that still exist between liberal and conservative educators. This division is not so much influenced by one’s political leanings, but rather by one’s expectations on what an educational system should deliver.

The 2010 party conferences in the UK exposed the tensions that exist in educational thinking in that country that has often served as a model for our own educational system. I was particularly interested in what an academic who described herself as an ‘ex-Marxist’ had to say during the Tories conference in Birmingham.

Katharine Birbalsingh, 37, is an Oxford University graduate. Until recently, she was the deputy head at an academy school in South London. Her father is Indian and her mother Jamaican; she grew up in Canada until her family moved to the UK when she was 15.

Birbalsingh made a scathing critique of the British state school system for promoting a ‘culture of excuses’ to explain why so many students were underachieving. She was particularly outspoken on the now common practice of replacing exams with softer assessment criteria.

She commented: “In schools and in society, we need high expectations, of everyone, even if you are black, or live on a council estate – why can’t they sit for exams at the end of the year? We have a situation where standards have been so lowered that even the children know it. When I give them past exam papers to do from 1998, they groan and beg for a 2005 or 2006 paper, because they know it will be easier.

“Ranking children by ability was viewed as poisonous by teachers, which meant that pupils live in darkness, without any idea of how they compare to those around them, let alone to those who are educated in the private sector.”

Birbalsingh did not survive this outspoken assessment of the system. She was forced to resign for “bringing the teaching profession into disrepute”.

The new Education Secretary Michael Gove paints a bleak picture of the British educational system. He claims that British students are leaving school without knowing their nation’s history or being able to communicate properly.

He complains that “thousands of children leave school unable to compose a proper sentence, ignorant of basic grammar, incapable of writing a clear, accurate letter”.

The British government recently published a white paper that promises to remedy the failures of years of wrong decisions by going back to basics. The proposed changes will include more emphasis on the teaching of English. Pupils will now lose marks for poor grammar and spelling.

Prof. Alan Smithers, director for the Centre of Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: “Clear expression is evidence of clear thought. It is reasonable to expect accurate spelling and good use of grammar in an exam.”

Exams will once again be given the importance they once had, while the introduction of an English Baccalaureate will reward pupils for gaining good results in English, maths, science and foreign languages.

The changes will also strengthen primary schools’ teaching of reading skills. Teachers will be given back the powers they once had to enforce discipline in classrooms.

It is a sad fact that educational fashions keep changing, creating confusion about the way we should be preparing our children for the real world of the workplace. The values of discipline, commitment, respect for authority, and academic achievement have been overshadowed by the emphasis given to concepts of educational democracy, social inclusion, equal rights for learning opportunities, and other humanistic concepts.

The change of administration in the UK propelled a much needed campaign for real education that is crucial to improve the already respectable attainment results of the British educational system.

Business leaders do not shy away from engaging in this debate. Sir Stuart Rose, the Marks and Spencer’s chairman, complains that too many young people leave school “not fit for work”. Who knows what our business leaders think about our system? They rarely tell us.

We must avoid the trap of assessing the merits of an educational system from an ideological perspective. No one has a monopoly on good ideas. Today, many consider that the prevailing academic views on education need revising as they are not delivering the goods that matter – specifically, employability.

We can wax lyrical about the merits of a humanistic education, but ultimately, what really matters is whether a particular educational system makes employment easier.

jcassarwhite@yahoo.com

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If you wish to contribute an article or would like a particular subject to be tackled in the Education section, call Davinia Hamilton on 2559 4513 or e-mail dhamilton@timesofmalta.com.