Minimum aims of Education

Getting agreement on measurable aims of education may be difficult. But deciding on a minimum level to be achieved by all should be easier. We know when the 'education system' or the individual child has failed.

As a democracy we need every individual to be able to take part in active discussion, understand the main issues and make a choice. As a social economy, we need them to be self-supporting economically and work and live in a community without causing disruption.

Therefore, by the age of 16 every child should:

1) Be able to communicate in English in speech and writing, personally and via IT
2) Be numerate so as to understand finance and basic concepts of engineering and society
3) Understand the structure of UK society with background knowledge of how we arrived at the present position
4) Understand where the UK fits into global society and its issues.
5) Behave lawfully and be able to prove an ability to work with others successfully

Measuring the results on these 5 scales should be the essential requirement for GCSEs. The exams should be more than pass or fail because clearly there is great scope for achieving more than the minimum level agreed. The main measure for the pupil should be the decile ranking he achieves. That way there can be no grade inflation and the top 10% are rated above the next 10%. The main measure for the schools though should be the number of their pupils failing to attain a pre-agreed minimum level.

The structure of the exams would have to change to be able to discriminate successfully between the different levels. Pupils would be motivated by a competitive result that they could use for selection for further training and employment. Schools would be motivated first to minimise the failures so likely to lead to future problems for society. At the same time they would have to raise their standards for the more able pupils to achieve results in a national competition.

Education and Social Policy

Here is a useful summary of the background to Education policy from the Robert Gordon University.

In particular I like the categorisation of approaches as follows:

Education has been particularly significant as an instrument of social policy, in the sense not only of policies for welfare but also as policies intended to deal with the structure of society. The aims of education include:

• Liberal education: the development of each individual intellectually and socially to that person's fullest potential
• Socialisation: education is a method of transmission of social norms and values. This is also sometimes seen as a form of social control.
• Education as 'handmaiden': the education system serves the industrial process and the economy by producing a trained workforce, and by providing childminding services.
• Social change (or 'social engineering'). The education system has been seen as a means of bringing about social change.

Stakeholders of UK Education

These are the people who have to be involved in the setting of objectives and development of policies:

1) The Government

The government is the agent for society as a whole. There is no dispute now that education should be compulsory for all children even though starting and finishing ages may not have the same universal agreement.

On our behalf the government collects the taxes and sets a budget for the state sector. It does not have direct control over private education but does exert a major influence on the expectations and results achieved by the private sector.

The fact that the state provides most of the resources automatically leads to a duty to ensure that those resources are used effectively for the benefit of all. This means results must be measured - but before you can measure you need to set clear objectives.

2) The Parents

Parents have the prime responsibility for bringing up - or educating - their children. They need to be involved in the setting of targets for the education system as a whole so that they can influence and understand what is being done to their offspring.

Parents are the prime source of motivation for their children. As a result it is vital that they are at least in broad agreement with the plans and activities of the relevant school. Their influence can actively help results or sabotage them.

Moreover it is the parents who can most easily spot when their children have difficulties and when the system that my be right for the majority needs to be adapted for a particular child.

3) The Teachers

Teachers have the responsibility of delivering the education required by the state and the parents. They are the ones most able to advise on the practicalities of what is possible for any group of children.

They need to work with parents to provide the flexibility to adapt the system for the individual child. They need to work with government to hone relevant objectives and decide the best use of resources.

4) The Children

School-age children should not be involved in the setting of organisational objectives. But their reactions to the system will determine its success. So they are the final arbiters of success. Even if they do not enjoy the process, their education may be judged by others to be good. Normally however the children will know very clearly if the school was right for them together with its weaknesses and strengths.

Naturally the older the child the more important their opinion. At the tertiary level, they should be effective consumers and able to choose an education that is right for them.