‘Education, Education, Education’ was Tony Blair’s mantra on the electoral trail in 1997 in the UK. It is widely recognised that education is the key to a healthier, safer, more prosperous society. And yet, education is often at the bottom of the pile when it comes to government funding leading to a less healthy, less safe, and less prosperous society. Why is this?
If we educated our populations well, we would have a healthier population, a safer population and a more prosperous population. This would mean, therefore, that there would be less state spending on healthcare, there would be less state spending supporting ill-health in the elderly and all the resultant problems with that. We would have a safer society because there would be a reduction in addictions and abuse (not an eradication), and usually less crime which would mean less spending on police, prisons and rehabilitation services. And there would be a more prosperous society because people could access better paid work, start up their own businesses, be more innovative and creative, and be more productive. Which would mean a reduction in state budgets for welfare but an increase in tax take, so the state becomes more prosperous as well meaning it can re-invest in the population’s education and in, for example, innovation processes. The state would be able to invest in other, macro, sources of productivity such as transport and digital infrastructure. Surely, it’s a no-brainer. And yet, we do not do it.
I remember when I was younger (I know, I sound really old), we had a respect for our teachers. If we came home and told our parents that we had been reprimanded by a teacher, the first question from them was ‘what did you do wrong’, and not ‘I am going to speak to the teacher’ usually abusively and rudely. Sometimes even violently. Our parents did not see teachers as being the ones responsible for the upbringing of their children, they knew it was very differently their responsibility to do that. Teachers brought the structure and expertise around education which our parents supported and backed up. Now I’m not saying there haven’t been some truly horrible teachers in the past. Of course there have, there have been some real sadists I am sure especially when corporal punishment was legal. There have been some utterly vile people who have abused children because abusers make it their sole mission to work out how they can access their victims. That humans can be hideous is an unfortunate aspect of human nature. But making teachers figures of disrespect is absolutely not the answer.
Why do we pay our teachers so poorly? What they do is the foundation of any successful society. Surely their compensation should be commensurate with that? I am not a teacher by the way! Yes, teaching is a vocation similar to a medical career. In both it is often a thankless task, unfortunately, but that does not mean they should not be paid a good salary. Their salary should not be seen a target for state savings – because if they were paid properly, able to do their jobs properly, the state coffers would benefit hugely, there would be less need for draconian savings. So, why do we feel that our educators are not worth a compensation equal to their impact on society? It does beggar belief, really.
Along with a lack of investment into our teachers, governments withhold investment into the school estate and infrastructure. In the UK, we went through a phase of selling off school playing fields for housing. Sport is crucial for children, exercise is one very good way to manage mental health let alone the beneficial impact on physical health. Shouldn’t we be teaching our children these things to help them throughout their lives? And yet, we sold off playing fields. The Blair government established a ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme which was designed to enhance the physical structure of schools because having a good physical space does help with learning. But the money ran out and didn’t impact every school before that happened…the government also encouraged Private Finance Initiatives which have financially crippled the schools with little to no benefit to them in the long term. This has been a struggle ever since, meaning other areas of spending (including teaching salaries) have had to be cut.
The lack of investment, combined with the increase in housing development, has meant that class sizes have increased to an unsustainable level. This is further exacerbated by teaching becoming an increasingly unattractive career and so there are fewer teachers to cover the classrooms. And the ultimate losers in all of this are our children. They do not get the education they need, they are not kept as safe as they should be, and they are suffering as a consequence. Teachers will tell you this, absolutely. The breakdown in some cases of the parental relationship, the sense that teachers and schools are responsible for children the more the child ends up being a pawn between the two. But no government seems to want to or be able to publicly talk about this. They don’t talk about the reality of the classroom today. Either because they are completely unaware of it, or because it is too much of an uncomfortable truth brought about by the expansion of the state into everyday lives which has enabled those who are inclined to, to abrogate any sense of self-responsibility to the state. Which suits elements of the state completely – the element that is about command and control.
The new Labour government in the UK is trying to distract attention away from its dearth of real initiative into improving the education system properly by setting parents against parents. They are doing this by targeting private schools with an increase in payable taxes, and the introduction of taxes where they have been previously exempt. Rather than some people thinking – why is the government not suggesting it is raising state education up to the standards of the best private schools across the state system? – they are complaining of there being an imbalance in the education standards. And they are revelling in the desire to bring the private schools down to the worst levels of the state system. Or better yet, abolish them altogether by the back door. The old government division tactics – them versus us amongst the population to shine the light away from what the government is, or is not, doing. And too many people are falling for it, asking all the wrong questions.
We as a population do not demand that our education is improved. We have accepted that it slips down the priority list far too often. We do not challenge the additional money invested into the areas that could be better managed if we had a better educated population. Yes, it means proactive upfront investment into education, and yes the results will not be felt until after the five years of a government, and yes in the beginning the investment will need to be additional because the savings won’t be realised overnight. But we are on a massive catch-up drive because the investment has been so lacking for so many decades.
This is where the narrow-minded focus of a politician interested only in their own vested interest of being in power works against the best interests of the very people they serve. If we were less disconnected, more in tune with each other and more connected, we would understand that children are our future and we need to invest in them. Because an investment in them is an investment into society. Who does it benefit to not provide a quality education for all regardless of background? It serves the government because the population doesn’t question. It is too busy trying to make the best of what it can, it is too busy surviving rather than thriving for the most part. We end up in a position where we cannot fight the command and control structure and it becomes a relief to abrogate responsibility to the state. Like some Orwellian production, only its reality.
In Orwell’s 1984 the purpose of education in Oceana is not to teach but to indoctrinate. The pupils are not encouraged into critical and independent thought but to tow the party line and be its minions essentially. To be obedient, ill-educated automatons. Very often I feel, in the UK our children are taught to remember so they can regurgitate facts for exams and meet blunt instrument outputs in terms of pass rate that apparently denotes success. Independent or critical thinking, debate, is not encouraged. I remember a friend, a Head of Department for a state school in a deprived area telling me that they held the hands of the pupils so they passed the GCSEs to meet the government targets, thereby inflating the pupils’ expectations that they could go to pass A’ Levels. The teachers then had to ruthlessly cull those who actually were not suited to studying at that level in the first term of the first year of A’ Levels. Anyone who has every worked with governmental targets knows that outputs do not equate to successful outcomes. Sometimes, quite the opposite.
This is, frankly, another area where we are entitled to ask questions of our governments, of our ‘leaders’. Where we can ask for transparency around our taxpayers’ money – where does it go? Why? Does it equate to the manifesto that government was elected on? What if we want to spend more money on education? We are entitled to insist upon it. But in return, we do have to give up the abrogation of responsibility, and take it back. Accept self-responsibility for our lives, work in connection with each other and with those who can put our wishes into practice.
‘Education, Education, Education’ is the right mantra. But is one that needs to be truly implemented, not end up a meaningless soundbite. Now is the time for us as a society to make that stand. Isn’t it?
Louisa Simpson 