The School Curriculum Ten Years Hence - UCET: Universities ...

would tie in better with the planning and finance cycles
• examination of the learners for vast stretches of the nicest,
warmest parts of the year when there are more natural distractions
than at any other time of the year that takes place in rooms that
are not usually air-conditioned
• a requirement that all the people who work in the organisation are
there at exactly the same times every day and take their holidays at
exactly the same time of the year, even though some parents have
to take their children away at other times because of their work
schedules or financial reasons
• built-in efficiency losses caused by sending everyone on a long
holiday in July/August so that on return the learners have forgotten
much of what they have learned and the teachers take a few weeks
to get back in stride
• separation of education from training
• accord training a lower status than education whilst at the same
time acknowledging that education is failing many of our young
people
We do need to think hard about what going to school and college
might mean as we work our way through the 21st century. Is the
whole construct of a school one that will help or hinder our tackling
of disaffection?
To sum up then: Where we see outstanding practitioners at work
they have certain things in common. They challenge those they
work with and they achieve more. They expect young people and
adult learners to give of their best and they are not disappointed.
They expect success and inspire interest and engagement. They
build-up self-esteem and self-belief.
Our challenge is to ensure that all young people have the
opportunity to succeed and to feel included and that we mean what
we say when we talk about ‘excellence for all’. We cannot rely only
on initiatives to solve this problem. We must be able to make the
mainstream of education work really well for more of our young
people. We need to build into all our schools the features many of
the successful initiatives and good mainstream practice that we can
see that have enabled the disaffected to find a way back into
learning and self-respect.
There are countless reasons for young people losing interest in
school, but if you are a teacher, or you work in other ways with
young people, you have to have a belief that you can make people
interested in learning. You have to want to engage with young
people to that end. You have to feel that you can make a difference
to young people’s lives.