Education
Education is all about the future. Its also about how we treat and look after our children. This is how you judge a society and by this standard, we are failing badly.
We need to change our current approach. The pay off from changing from our current approach won't come until 18 years later, so of course Labour and Conservative politicians won't be interested. Changes in education will take at least 5 years to come through before becoming increased after 18 years then being enormous after 40 years when the second generation of children come through this system, raised by adults who also came through it.
I'm sure that there are many things I write here where people would think "impossible" or "yeah, but it'll never happen". But change starts with us. We cannot carry on the way we are. Generation Z are already being handed a ticking time bomb that could lead to war or worse.
The Covid pandemic has also shown up a number of failings with education, particularly the need to turn up to classrooms and called into question what it is that we need delivered by educators and schools and how?
But there are also so many other things which also need fixing. So this is where I would start:
Abolish Fee Paying Schools
No school will be allowed to charge a fee to provide education. All schools will receive their funding from Government. Funding will be based on need with a view to ensuring all children receive an excellent education and opportunity irrespective of a parents ability to buy that education.
Parents will not be asked for any further funding for the school for books, school trips or equipment so that there is no inequality in education. Our state schools will not be starved of cash.
Of course this is probably very controversial for British people. This is because the private school system in the UK is a source of snobbery, status, and elitism that many will want to protect. This is the very reason to dismantle it. Its a horrific anachronism that we need to deal with.
State education without fee paying schools is standard in a number of European countries including those where the education systems are regarded the best. We say we want to be up there with the best, so we need to be brave enough to change to be like the best.
Introducing the profit motive within the education system is proven not to work. In Iraq, before the Gulf War, their state education system was ranked highly in the Middle Eastern world in measures like literacy. The American's invaded and brought in 'experts' to 'fix' their broken system. These experts came from US states where the schools are funded by tuition fees, a market based system for education. But these states had much lower literacy rates than Iraq where the profit motive was not used. Despite this and other evidence showing that it doesn't work and that it’s a flawed system, we carry on, the Americans privatised Iraq’s education system and $millions in profits were made, system ‘fixed’. Literacy rates in Iraq have since fallen.
For anyone who reads this and thinks, not possible, it will never happen, you're part of the problem. We need to make it happen, and if we did, we would all benefit enormously.
Food at School
We know for a fact that children will work better when they have slept and eaten. We also know that there is an educational gap between those who get good food provided at home and those who don’t. Providing good food is expensive, but there is a massive pay off. So schools will provide:
A free breakfast will be available between 7 - 8am to the age of 18.
A free lunch will be provided at 12-1 to the age of 18.
Tea will be provided between 4-5 pm up to 11 years of age.
Fruit and vegetable snacks will be freely available to the age of 18.
This means that children can leave home hungry, having not been fed by parents, and can return home and not need to be fed. Everyone is on a equal footing in their hunger levels, from kids who's parents can afford chefs, to kids who's parents are heroin addicts. However, children can go home to eat if they wish, free choice remains. This is not outsourcing parenting as one Tory MP put it in 2020. This is no different to a builder taking responsibility for the foundations of the house. There is no point in the state providing education (something we all think the state should do) if children are starving and hungry. Its also about child equality. We remove the food issue, and can focus on education.
These two factor alone will transform society once the second generation of children go through this. They will be raised by parents who understand the importance of what is being done and they will be benefitting from it as well. The costs in terms of reduced healthcare and mental health issues, and increased effectiveness in the workforce will more than pay for this approach.
School Age
Children will start pre-school education in the September after their 4th birthday. But preschool education will not have a focus on formal lessons but on socialisation and preparation for school and life and will definitely not have any form of measurement of ‘academic’ skills.
School will start in September after the 6th birthday and be compulsory until the August following the 18th Birthday.
School Holidays
4 weeks. Anytime. You never really miss anything.
Religion
Religious schools will be banned and religion will not be taught as a specific subject. Schools must behave and arrange themselves without reference to any religion. Due to the risk of discrimination, single sex schools would not be allowed. No child will be allowed to opt out of subjects due to personal religious believes, so the prevailing societal views on topics such as feminism, abortion and homosexuality will be discussed along with the struggle each of these subjects have been though to reach the current level of tolerance. People who hold religious views can disagree with these things and that disagreement will be respected except where it breaches the law. For example a Christian who expresses a white suprrmisist view will be called out as racism is unacceptable and in the workplace or on the street, illegal. A Catholic is free to express views against abortion and even campaign politically to change the current rules, but saying that a woman’s place is in the home puts them up against gender discrimination laws and this will be called out. Equally, views about homosexuality can be held personally and expressed sensibly, but it will be pointed out that it’s illegal to express these views outside of the home, or allow them to manifest these views in certain ways, such as refusing to rent a hotel room to two men.
University and Student Fees
Introducing Student Fees was one of the biggest mistakes in the U.K. in the last 20 years in education, an attempt to introduce the profit motive into the Universtiy sector and commercialise education. It is wrong in so many ways, one is making education difficult to access for anyone without money, and the other is saddling young people with debt. I would scrap it and write off the student debt. The American system of a market for education is not the world best, it is not world leading, and there is no evidence that it produces the best education. There is no research or evidence that shows its worth copying wholesale.
There is a consumerist argument for charging fees which is this: Students are consumers of education and they benefit from it so should pay for it. This is so obviously flawed. If we had a properly funded state system and a child from a poor socio-economic background who would otherwise not be able to afford to go to University, grew up to find a cure for cancer, we all benefit. Society benefits. We should all pay for education on this basis.
I would continue to send most research funding to Russell Group Universities. These Universities will be expected to provide courses that are in line with the future industrial strategy of the UK and on courses identified as essential for research as well as work with the Government to foster new and innovative high risk projects. Other Universities will provide education and training on any course they choose and can include courses that are purely intellectual. They will not have to justify themselves economically and can be learning to the sake of pure learning.
All Universities would be encouraged to increase the time Undergrads get with PHD students and Professors in direct teaching and all Universities would be encouraged to focus on high quality research, teaching and student experience and not on making profit.
Adult Education and Training
After 18 the whole population should be aware that free education and training remains available to them. This would be University level education, apprenticeships, courses and online training. Everyone should leave school at 18 with a desire to constantly learn new information. This should be free and will allow the adult population to continually learn and adapt to whatever changes are taking place.
Having such a system in place, a state system and state funded system providing education, and highly functional workers to employers, there is no excuse for any employer to complain at taxes paid to the UK in return for such an essential commodity for their pursuit of profit.
School Hours
Primary Education
School hours for 4-11 year olds will be changed to 8 to 12 with a 30 min break.
Secondary Education
School hours for 11-18 year olds will be changed to 1-4 with a 30 min break.
This time will be for ‘subject education’. The other half of the day will be for ‘Other Activities’, both of which are explained below.
The Big Question is: What should we teach?
Subject Education
Subject education is what we recognise today as topics such as English; Maths; Science; History; Geography.
As mentioned above, school hours are shorter than now so ‘Subject Education’ would be refined to a smaller set of traditionally academic subjects. Subject Education time will not be for 'Other Activities’ (explained below) such as PE, Religion, Drama, Social/Sex education lessons and food and nutrition lessons.
Subject Education is the more traditional form of teaching. This is the area where some traditionalists say that children should learn facts and information and then take exams on those subjects. Facts, historical information and lists are nice to learn and they certainly have a place, however, all of this information will become more obsolete in future as computers and AI can retain and recall this information with far greater efficiency than humans.
I believe that what will be important instead is:
Entrepreneurialism and risk taking
Creative thinking and idea development.
Inventiveness.
Resilience and adaptability.
Social and environmental responsibility, fairness and understanding of others.
We do not get these skills by learning about historical facts or from others aspects of ‘subject education’. So, all subject education will be taught with this in mind. Children will be taught to think along side facts and lists.
And given what we now know about learning from home, perhaps some of these lessons can be delivered by teams of global teachers who are experts in engaging children in their subjects via a screen and only some lessons need to be practical in shared laboratory spaces where the best equipment is used by many children rather than a single school.
Other Activities
Given the changes in society from technology and AI, there is a need to focus more on other things rather than just traditional subject education. This is what Other Activities is about. This is not taught by traditional subject teachers, but by a range of other people it might be gym instructors, specialists from industry or business, or just people from the community.
Other Activities will change and will be based on the childs age, but at it’s heart is life skills. For example, at all ages children will be taught about food, local food markets, and how to cook using food purchased there. All children will leave school at 18 being great cooks, with knowledge and ability to cook healthy food. This will clearly take a good 10 years to bed in before 18 year olds leave with these skills and then the benefits will really start to be felt 30 years later when those children start having children. But from their 18th birthday until their 98th birthday, I believe that this skill, will save the health system billions of pounds And is something I wrote about in my post here.
Other Activities would include:
Food, nutrition and cookery, relying on local food markets.
Cycling and electric vehicle (scooters etc) proficiency and cycle lane knowledge, how to spot and stay out of cycle lanes
How to care for old people and visiting the elderly, relatives or not.
The importance of Society and looking after each other.
Swimming lessons and water safety.
The Arts, enjoyment of art, music and museums.
Video, TV, films and film making.
Military service and how to shoot.
Human Rights.
Personal safety and terrorism information.
Manual navigation skills.
First Aid.
Litter picking, chewing gum and cigarette butts and respecting your locality.
Driving lessons and motorway skills.
Entrepreneurialism and inventiveness and how to fail continuously with perseverance.
Personal relationships and difference resolution.
Personal financial knowledge especially how to avoid and reduce debt.
Acting.
Public Speaking.
Enjoyment of the countryside And foraging.
The environment, soil and river conservation and species depletion.
Global warming and resource extraction.
Enjoyment of British heritage.
World religions and philosophies, and their shared core values.
Economic philosophies, unregulated banking and greed.
Economic exploitation’s past and present. The gig and dig economies.
Fairness in wealth distribution and managing greed.
Charity work.
Mental health awareness and coping strategies.
Pointless consumerism versus necessary consumerism.
Finding meaning and purpose each day.
Identifying activities and their short or long term value.
Equality, especially gender and racial equality.
Feminism, misogyny and the historical impact of the patriarchy.
Prostitution and people trafficking.
Bullying and online behaviour, pornography and personal nudity online.
Sex education, relationships and respect and sexual safety.
Deprivation avoidance and crime reduction.
Addiction, drugs, gambling and technology.
Data, invasive technology and the price of lost online privacy
Graffiti, its positive and negative value, and its removal.
Immigration and movement (forced and voluntary) of people past and present.
Self confidence and self esteem.
Personal responsibility.
Politics and the political system.
Protesting and challenging authority.
Criminal law, your right and policing.
The point of all of these lessons are:
That they are not educational in the traditional sense, there isn’t any exam, there isn’t any pressure, no league tables.
Children will find some subjects interesting, others boring, they will excel at some, not at others, but there is no judgment or pressure, just a journey of discovery for the individual and an attempt at an awakening to create globally informed, adaptable and resilient and capable individuals.
They inform children on the type of society we are looking to create and to give them the skills to contribute to that society, giving them a sense of purpose.
Allow children to create social bonds, whether that’s with their peers, younger children, or an older generation. It will create cross generational bonds reinforcing our need to rely on each other.
Cost of Change
These changes will cost money. There is the cost of food being provided. There is the cost of the new activity leaders involved. The cost of courses.
However, we will be producing citizens who will be strongly in favour of cycling places. Who will have local food markets they can cycle to. Who will be able to prepare healthy home cooked food from local ingredients at a low cost. Who will care for elderly people, and will be equipped to look after their physical and mental health.
I believe that these changes will cost £millions, whilst saving £billions in the long term and make the UK the leading place to live and work and will probably create the worlds leading businesses in the decades ahead, or we can carry on as we have been doing and continue to slip behind as a country.
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