The Covid 19 crisis has exposed some salutary lessons about what schools are, and could be about…

Michael Gove, as Education Secretary, having as much impact and engagement in a primary school as he did with any group of free-thinking individuals. This was the man who was so concerned that his lack of ideas would be exposed at the national educational conference that he suggested that rather than lay out the paucity of his thinking about education, he thought that the teachers might like to ask him questions instead!

Michael Gove visiting a London school in 2011 as education secretary. ‘He took the word “families” off the wall and decimated budgets but schools never gave up helping.’ Photograph: Eddie Mulholland/Rex

An interesting article from Laura McInerny of the Guardian which throws some light on how schools have been engaged to provide outcomes which are other than educational.

Interesting to see that they have included a picture of a singularly awful Education Secretary as their cover picture. Michael Gove is praised in the Tory Party for ‘revolutionising’ the education landscape. He did nothing of the sort. He was a reductionist, taking away any moves to align education with a progressive 21st century agenda. He merely privatised it, dismantling the local accountability which was assured by the Local Education Authorities, and creating Multiple Academy Trusts and Free Schools in much the way the Mao launched the 100 Flower Campaign by allowing a free for all and an ‘education marketplace’.

The results were predictable. Like other privatisations, there has been much emphasis on managerialism – the idea that no specific expertise is required to run education. It is simply a production process in which you minimise the inputs and maximise the outputs to deliver value to the stakeholders in the MAT. Many MATs have shown shoddy accountability and dubious leadership. As for the free schools and UTCs – as many are failing as have succeeded.

Meanwhile, the massive education estate has been given away and young people’s futures are considered collateral damage in this marketplace in learning.

Schools should be about so much more than limited learning factories. Hopefully, neither the students, the parents or the teachers will accept going back to the ‘old ways’ of doing things.

Read more by clicking on the link: Education was never the sole focus of schools. The coronavirus pandemic has proved it | The Guardian

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About educationalist04

I'm convinced we can, as a species, do much better than this if we set our minds to being much more positive and productive towards our fellow humans. The solution is learning - creating independent and autonomous learners who can problem solve, innovate and create a better more equitable and sustainable world. My books, Future Proof Your School and Re-Examining Success together with this blog, explore how better learning outcomes for all can be achieved.

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