When Tony Blair proclaimed that ‘education, education, education’ would be the top priority of a New Labour government, he was delivering more than an effective soundbite. He was demonstrating that the government he led understood the absolutely crucial importance of education and skills to our country’s future and was anticipating the current challenges of migration and the off-shoring of work.
Because of our investment and reform over the last ten years, the next Labour leader and prime minister will inherit a much improved education system. Standards will have improved dramatically. The chronic under-investment in schools will have been reversed. We are well on the way to more personalised learning to address the needs of every child; with a set of completely new qualifications for 14 to19 year-olds, designed by employers, accepted by universities and delivered by schools and colleges working together.
But again the need will be to look ahead and anticipate the challenges of the next ten years. What are these likely to be?
I think the debate will move onto how we develop in government a more flexible, mature relationship with schools and how we engender a permanent learning culture. Both will be necessary. In a world which is changing faster than ever, we have to ensure our schools are agile enough to prepare their pupils for the new challenges and opportunities in front of them. And because our future prosperity will depend upon making the most of the potential and talents of everyone, we are all going to have to learn and upgrade our skills throughout our lives.
We have already taken big steps towards this. That is why, for example, so much of our schools reform programme is designed to strengthen relationships with external partners: with other agencies through Every Child Matters, with the community through extended schools, and with employers and each other through the new qualifications. And all of these relationships are cemented into permanent partnerships through new school structures.
As schools become more agile and outward looking they will be more responsive to the needs of their communities, parents and pupils. They will often know better than Whitehall what changes are needed. That is why we can’t turn back these reforms. But should we go further? Are we approaching a time when we need to recast radically the relationship between government and schools?
The temptation from Whitehall is to want to control everything, but central command and control of our public services is now outdated. The challenge for the future is how to performance manage 23,000 schools so that parents and pupils have a choice of a range of excellent school provision and can find locally the best option to suit their individual needs and aspirations.
To work effectively, performance management must use a whole range of levers. We can change what is inspected, what is reported to parents and what appears in performance tables. We can pay incentives. We can change the supply of advice, materials, and training. We can dictate what is taught through the National Curriculum.
But if we specify too much then there is no room left for the innovation, flexibility and diversity that we want. We currently have the Power to Innovate programme, where schools apply to the Department for permission to innovate. Surely, if we mean what we say, then the balance must change and school leaders must be entrusted with such freedom without the bureaucratic obstacle of getting permission.
This change demonstrates the need for us to develop a new style for government: a style that is clear about what we want, but prescribes less how we want it; where there is no doubt about the consequences of failure, but where we trust schools to find their own way to success. In short, a style to convince the public that we are not the control freaks they have been led to believe.
We should remember as well that we are redefining the role of local councils, so that they move them from being the deliverers of education to being commissioners of education. We want them to design, manage and be accountable for the education provision in their area, but to leave the detail of the running of the school to schools themselves, who in turn can be more accountable to their parents and communities.
If we are right to redefine the role of local government, as I believe we are, should we not have the courage as well to look afresh at what central government does? Yes, this carries risk and pain at times. Having less control will not be accompanied by less accountability. I somehow suspect, for example, that some of those most passionate about the need to liberate schools from the control of politicians will be the most angry if they find their own pet subject – whether it be Shakespeare or sustainable development – is dropped from the curriculum. Achieving minimum standards in maths, English and science is not negotiable, but perhaps everything else should be.
I don’t think many parents would want to return to the days where they were kept in the dark about the performance of their local schools. Tests and tables inform parents and pupils and help improve standards. They offer objective measures of outcomes but they don’t tell the whole story which is why inspections are also a vital part of performance management. These are the measures of outcomes that we want in return for taxpayers’ money. But are they at their most effective if we also specify how to achieve those outcomes?
The time for the centre to direct how and what is done, is when it is necessary to intervene to address failure. Thanks to nine years of investment and reform, 1500 failing schools have been turned around and there aren’t too many left, but where under performance exists we should be active at the earliest possible stage.
The other big challenge for the future is engendering a learning culture that carries us beyond school and through our working lives.
The latest announcement of test results for 14 year-olds showed great improvements in maths and science –important skills needed for the UK economy. They also showed the persistence of the gender gap between boys and girls in English. Over the last ten years the improvement for both sexes has seen an extra 15 per cent getting the required standard at 14, but this means that boys are only now achieving the level that girls were achieving in 1997.
This culture of low aspiration, particularly amongst working-class boys and black and ethnic minority children, must be turned into a culture of learning if the disadvantaged are to achieve their potential and if the UK is going to successfully compete internationally. Three out of ten children still leave education at 16. That has to change and 18 must become the school leaving age by consensus.
Even at 18, the learning culture must continue. There are no more jobs for life. The pace of technological change shows no sign of diminishing and the international migration of capital and labour will continue to accelerate. The result is that we will all constantly need to refresh our skills and professional development. Updating skills and learning new ones must become the norm.
Stimulating this shift in culture requires a combination of motivation, building self-confidence, and a more personalised journey through education.
We need to put more emphasis in schools on work-related learning in order to motivate those children who otherwise see little point in learning. We have to work hard to find them mentors and role models. We need to find new ways of engaging their parents in their education and recasting the relationship between school and home.
We need to see how we can build up self-confidence and belief through recognition and success, whether by increasing children’s opportunity to play sport or through their love of music or other arts. Their achievements must then be recognised in a new culture that looks for success rather than undermining it.
Finally, personalisation must develop beyond teaching and better choice for learners. Currently, we are developing the range of choice of schools and qualifications and increasing the capacity for teaching and learning to be more personalised. This needs to come together more with the emotional, social and behavioural work that is being developed as part of Every Child Matters. We must prove that it is possible to both improve standards and the whole child. The two, like economic efficiency and social justice, need each other.
The first years of the Labour government faced huge challenges in rebuilding the public sector after decades of neglect. It was right to drive it hard from the centre in exchange for the £20bn in extra spending. Our success can be seen in rising standards across schools. But we need to think anew if we are to continue this improvement, help those who still miss out on the opportunities that education brings, and meet the new demand for skills. We have to be prepared to allow schools the freedom and flexibility they have earned so they can meet the needs of their pupils and communities. We have to better tailor opportunities to the individual whether they are children or adults. It means being more effective by standing back, by introducing a new style of smarter government.