EDUCATION FOR THE GOOD SOCIETY - Support

3. Education and fairnessRebecca HickmanCui bono – who benefits?It is familiar territory to consider the principle offairness in relation to public service delivery andoutcomes. The concept of fairness is sufficientlyvague to make it an appealing touchstonefor politicians of all hues. It is convenientlysusceptible to being invoked to lend credibilityto an ideologically driven political agenda andless often used to direct and shape the content ofthat agenda. As Roy Hattersley once commented,‘We all believe in fairness and define it accordingto taste.’So we need to define terms; craft a meaningfuldefinition of fairness, capable of a degree ofobjective application. To this end, in the sphereof education policy, the cui bono principleprovides us with a useful tool. Who stands tobenefit? Who do the structures, operation andrepercussions of a particular education systemreward, and who finds their starting position ofrelative disadvantage unchanged or worsened?Fairness would demand that everyone benefits,that outcomes improve across the board, whileinequality and socially determined attainmentreduce. In that case, our vision of fairness mightbe summed up as educational systems andprovision that redistribute opportunities, powerand resources across lifetimes and generations.Conversely, unfairness would be educationalsystems and provision that reproduce andentrench existing patterns of (dis)advantageand social inequality, thereby creating a kindof social closure. Crucially, this definition offairness clearly speaks of ends as well as means,destinations as well as journeys.The application of such a definition requiresattention to a number of questions. First, whereis the locus of responsibility: to what extent doesit rest with the state, and should the achievementof fairness ever depend on, say, the degree ofactive participation by parents? Second, mustfairness be universal: morally and practically,can it be achieved for one child if it has beendenied another? Third, what is the relationshipof fairness to democratic accountability at localand national levels? Fourth, in what respectsis fairness unavoidably eroded by a faithfulattachment to market mores, and what level ofempirical evidence must we demand of market orany other solutions?Markets and schoolingResearch suggests that the expansion in educationprovision of the past 60 years has helped the‘haves’ to entrench their privileged position atthe expense of the ‘have nots’ and that the relationshipbetween family income and educationalattainment in the UK has actually strengthenedover time. In other words, having notionally‘equal’ access to educational opportunity is notthe same thing as having equal prospects of benefitingfrom educational provision. To achieve thelatter, proactive interventions are required onbehalf of those who bring fewer resources andlesser know-how to the table.In education, the Conservatives havetraditionally focused more on the enablingstructures for equivalent learning inputs than onthe actual and measurable outputs of the system.In other words, they stand accused by Labour(and, once, the Liberal Democrats) of neglectingthe wider circumstances and factors that mediateeducational destinies – factors such as individualcapabilities, household income, family practicesand social capital. The Conservatives mightnonetheless argue that the system they create isfair – providing theoretical equal opportunities toprogress to children from all backgrounds.But the current Coalition Government’sunseemly dash towards all-out marketisationbetrays an idolatry of means that is not consistentwith a commitment to just outcomes. Cui bono?Who stands to benefit from academies, freeschools, diminished local education authoritiesand the proliferation of admissions authorities?Certainly central government. For all the rhetoricof localism, the secretary of state is taking back tohimself considerable direct powers over schools,exercised through funding agreements withacademies and free schools, not to mention directresponsibility for areas such as teacher trainingand curriculum and exams.Education for the good society | 19