Education Reform - careful thought is needed, not knee-jerk reactions

Education Secretary, Michael Gove (Telegraph 28-12-10) in an article for the Telegraph stated:

I was in the Far East last month, to see what I could learn. In one Beijing school I was handed a thick book with screeds of Chinese characters and the odd paragraph in English. “Is this a textbook,” I asked? No, I was told, it was a compendium of research papers published in academic journals by people at the school. “Gosh,” I replied. “Your teachers must be well qualified if they are regularly publishing new work in university journals.”

The papers were not, I was told, the professional work of the teachers. They were the homework of the pupils. And lest you think the example was a one-off, I had exactly the same experience in a Singapore school just two days later.

Schools in the Far East are turning out students who are working at an altogether higher level than our own.

Of course any sensible person would have examined this situation in a bit more detail. Is it really true that this was the homework of school pupils? Are these students representative of the whole schooling system in China? Are the results transferable to the UK?

The answers to most of these questions however would suggest that something is not quite right and I will leave it to the Reader to work out what they are.

However it does suggest that reform to British education is needed. We know for instance, that the A-Level system needs reform. After all:

• How can you say that a system that only provides relevant educational outcomes for less than 40% of the school-age population is satisfactory?
• How can you say that an educational system where the focus is on university entrance and does not provide a structured programme of study for all children to the age of 18 is satisfactory?
• How can you say that an educational system where teachers "teach" to the next exam rather than providing all students with a comporehensive education is satisfactory?

The educational system has slowly been improved over the last 10-20 years, but more review and reform is needed.

Some of what Mr Gove has said prior to him becoming Education Secretary was good - teachers (and head teachers) need more control of the classroom, and there needs to be less "interference" from central and local government. Schools need to be freed from the tyranny of the "league tables".

The problem is that his "reforms" do not address the fundamental problems with the English educational system, let alone the entire Britsih Education system.