The Reclaiming Education alliance believes it is vital to have a clear understanding of what is wrong with Education and what should be done to fix it.
For the last General Election, we put together a short briefing which we believe points the right direction. You can download it from here and below there is an extract that gives a flavour of what concerns us.
We believe that:
- international evidence shows our children are less happy and more stressed than in many comparable countries.
- a funding crisis and a teacher retention crisis are developing in our schools to a level not seen since the Tory government of the 1990’s.
- support for children with special educational needs and disabilities is inadequate
- our system reinforces inequality. International evidence also shows that, while our ablest children do well, too many of the others don’t achieve as well as they do in other countries.
- too many people are denied opportunities –because of cost, lack of locally accessible provision or because the pressures faced by schools and colleges lead them to deny access.
- for too long the British economic model has been based on low wages and low skills. This needs to change especially in the context of Brexit.
- the growth of gangs and youth crime in some areas is of great concern.
- schools and colleges are no longer properly accountable and vital decisions are made without any sort of transparency to parents, learners and local communities.
- the current approach of marketising and privatising education is ineffective, hugely wasteful and has led to growing financial mismanagement and corruption.
- current curriculum and examinations are too narrow and don’t properly engage or prepare young people for the challenges of adult life.