Are Educational Fads The King’s New Suit of Clothes?
Perhaps the biggest concern for parents and teachers is the continuing trend of the UK to be slipping down the world educational league table. We have a limited number of excellent schools and respected teaching resources in both the state and independent sectors, but these are denuded by the significant failure in the bulk of our primary and secondary schools.
This failure, emphasising the government’s unsuccessful educational performance, has proven over the last 10 years that throwing money at the problem has achieved little. Billions of pounds have been invested to improve educational standards especially in numeracy and literacy. But the initiatives have left the teaching profession, parents, children and the educationalists frustrated. How have we gone backwards in subject areas that have changed little in content and educational structure? Teachers are still in the classroom teaching, children still attend school and the number of schools has not changed dramatically. So what has changed? I believe it is the advent of the educational FAD.
I once listened to a fascinating lecture by an eminent management guru who, having been responsible for the conception of numerous management fads, had lost faith and become an arch critic of the process. He used a clock face to support his argument. Taking 12 o’clock as the launch point he said the first quarter hour represented the evangelical process to promote the concept where books were published, personal appearances made and editorial comment solicited. From quarter past to half past saw the onset of the early adopter. From half past to quarter to the hour other management teams driven by a marketing hype from companies who had adopted the scheme feel obliged to accept the concept. Caught in the pizzazz comparable to the “King’s new suit of clothes”* very few criticised the FAD. Before they did our man had developed its replacement. And at 12 o’clock he launched the new theme. The actual lifespan of a typical FAD ranged from 18 months to five years. The trick is to be always one step ahead.
Sound familiar? How may FAD’s have we witnessed in education since the 1992 education bill launched the national curriculum. My concern is if we continuously play games with the educational format by introducing a stream of initiatives that have been dreamt up, instigated, failed and replaced, we will absorb all of our teaching resources in playing non productive educational games. Schools have spent a vast amount of time, energy and expense adopting the measures – generally against their better judgment. Speaking to a representative sample of the 32,000 head teachers or the 450,000 teachers in the UK showed little enthusiasm for many of the government’s schemes exist. In The Times Gillian Low, president of the Girls Schools Association criticised Ed Balls the Schools Secretary for subjecting schools “to an initiative a week.” She went on to say “I think we need time to pause and think, is there a cohesive plan here?”
The UK educational standards are clearly slipping. But how much can we attribute to these FADs that have diluted the teaching thrust. Consultants and educationalists may have generated a sizable income from a constant flow of new initiatives. Schools in turn have wasted small fortunes. In the meantime the world is catching up. Educational Policies overseas present success stories in common sense and logic. Even their starting age for school at six or seven years is at odds with our five-year-old starting age. Perhaps we have a lot to learn and need to adopt more rational and cohesive measures that will put the UK’s schooling system back where it belongs, top of the class.
• In case you have forgotten or never heard this children’s song, The Kings suit of clothes were imaginary, sold to the King by a wizard. No one ever dared tell the King he was in his underwear, until a small child told him. Perhaps we need a small child to tell King Ed all is not what he thinks.
Alistair Owens
