Education and schools - the future never comes

The question needs to be asked: what is the purpose of education? The answer was easier when everyone agreed that life consisted of school, a job, a pension. Twenty-first-century society has developed far more complex characteristics, with competing needs going well beyond the world of work.

The expectation is that schooling should prepare all children for all aspects of life, but highly unequal access to education in this country, and the sharp divisions between state schools and private schools, and between graduates and non-graduates, has helped to produce an unequal society where the divide between rich and poor has never been greater. It is now generally recognised that this leads to ever greater inequity and a consequent lack of prosperity for the whole nation.

The goal should be not only greater equality but an understanding of the meaning of equity in our education system, which leads to greater opportunities, especially for the disadvantaged.

“What do we want a new vision of education to be? I’d like to see a system that places an emphasis on a construction of knowledge, rather than the instruction of knowledge we experience in our data-driven classrooms. This shift relies on our participation and collaboration, and our willingness to engage with troublesome knowledge not shy away from it.”

R Payne, 2020