Another Brick in the Wall

“We can give everybody the skills to find and build new and better jobs.” (Rt Hon Boris Johnson, PM 29 Sept 2020)

“ ‘The First Crusade strengthened Alexius I’s position as Byzantine Emperor.’ Assess the validity of this view of the reign of Alexius I.” (AQA A-Level History, June 2018)

So the Prime Minister is offering anyone who doesn’t have an A-Level the opportunity to gain a Further Education qualification to develop greater skills nimbleness to assist our (Post) Covid economy. Brilliant.

I have an academic record that some would be envious of. Three A-Levels at Grade A, an honours degree from a Russell Group University (together with an award for my dissertation) and a post-graduate qualification in teaching.

However, I fear that I’m going to be of little use in the economic and employment turmoil now facing us. I’ve done all my learning in a very ‘traditional’ manner and am completely useless with practical matters – my wife would rather mow the lawn because I’d probably leave it looking like a freshly-ploughed field.

On the other hand, one of my best friends who’s a plumber is probably extremely valuable in the coming years. He has, of course, his plumbing skills. But he’s also, through his practical and vocational training, got far greater versatility and adaptability than I have.

We all know that science and technology are going to be the driving forces in the globalised, digital economy of the near-future. And my A-Levels and philosophical training won’t be of much use there! (Let’s set aside for now, the essential aspect of ethics within the new technological world – I’m referring to the development and application of technology and machinery.)

So how have we chosen to construct our school curriculum to prepare students for this new world? A knowledge-heavy, exam-based system that tests memory and writing. I mean really! That’s why we’ve invented the microchip and AI – so we don’t need to remember things and even less do we need to handwrite anything anymore. This isn’t is it?

The constant devaluing of vocational learning has left us with a dearth of skills in all manner of areas. The OfSTED Inspector who described our in-school construction workshop as ‘not high value’ because it didn’t count on league tables is, I’m sure, far happier having a plumber whose qualifications are in Geography and English literature.

Yet strangely, not having an A-Level is being used as an indicator of someone who needs a Lifelong Skills Guarantee… Even when he’s trying to do the right thing he underlines a complete lack of understanding of what, and how, modern education should be structured. And an implicit intellectual snobbery that an A-Level is somehow more valuable than the Level 3 qualification in Motor Vehicle Maintenance or Public Services (because it’s not like we need those at the moment is it?).

Perhaps it would be better if the Prime Minister had announced that anyone who has a degree in Arts or Humanities would be entitled to a college course - and I speak as a graduate in that area – to provide more suitable 21st Century training.

That is not intended as a criticism of individuals who chose to follow those qualifications. It’s meant to highlight that successive governments have trumpeted University and ‘academic’ learning as being the best vehicle for social mobility and having the greatest currency. The government since 2010 has gone even further and narrowed what it considers to be truly ‘high-value’ as the tight range included within the EBacc Suite – with arts and creative GCSE and A-Level entries dropping like stones since 2010.

But now we have a Prime Minister who wishes for all of us to be ‘upskilled’ in order that we can bounce back quickly from the trauma of the pandemic. Perhaps now would be a good time to reflect, holistically, on the entire education system – from age 3-21; with an eye on planning to develop a workforce that can cope with pandemics, climate change, globalisation and shifting geopolitics.

Or, of course, we can have another ‘strategy’ that sounds good. There’ll be another election soon enough – so no need to plan further ahead than 2024…