A posting today at the SAU blog is by one of my favourite educational commentators, . It is basically a written down version of what he said on this occasion.
Gilbert supplies his own summary:
As a consequence of my encounter with the state education system, I believe that there are five policy changes that might begin to solve our country's educational problems.1. Take the education system out of state control;
2. Allow schools to set their own admissions policies;
3. Disband the National Curriculum;
4. Introduce a standardized reliable series of external tests; and
5. Offer improved child care facilities to the parents of very young children.
That shouldn't take long!
And while you're at the SAU blog, check out Elaine Sternberg's review of Alan Bennett's play The History Boys, now in repertory at the National Theatre.
While embedding the links into the above verbiage, I noted that the samizdata piece I did after attending Gilbert's SAU talk, and the Bennett play, are both, centrally about the matter of the measurability and the immeasurability of education. Bennett argues that the immeasurable shouldn't be neglected, and I argued that immeasurability is no excuse to put the government in charge of everything.
When you say "That shouldn't take long!", I assume the ! is meant to indicate sarcasm, but actually I think only 4 and 5 are significantly large tasks and in fact only 5 really large.
For the others, it's just political will that is required. Just tell the bureaucrats to go home, give the money to the Head Teachers and tell them to get on with it. Also give the money (per head) to anyone else who starts up a school and attracts custom.
Not hard really.
If only! Recently I put it to a shadow front bencher that no real reform of education was possible so long as Ofsted were in place. He blanched visibly, no doubt recalling the fate of poor John Patten, the last education secretary to seriously oppose his minders. I quite agree that it would be possible to disband all the tentacles of the state that corrupt our schools (and absorb at least 40% of all education spending), but it would require politicians of a far higher calibre than what we have now.
