EDUCATION FOR THE GOOD SOCIETY - Support

1 See www.education.gov.uk/b0065507/gttl/health-safetywelfare/wellbeing.2 See http://education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publication-Detail/Page1/DCSF-WBL-01-08.3 UNICEF, Child Poverty inPerspective: An Overview of ChildWell-being in Rich Countries,Innocenti Report Card 7, UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre, 2007.4 CPAG, Child Wellbeing andChild Poverty: Where the UKStands in the European Table,Child Poverty Action Group,2009.5 See www.oecd.org/pages/0,3417,en_32252351_32235731_1_1_1_1_1,00.html.6 The United Nations Conventionon the Rights of the Child alreadygoes some way towards this.Article 27 recognises ‘the right ofevery child to a standard of livingadequate for the child’s physical,mental, spiritual, moral and socialdevelopment’. In addition, Article29 states that ‘the education ofthe child shall be directed to…the development of the child’spersonality, talents and mental andphysical abilities to their fullestpotential’.5. Well-beingand educationCharles Seaford, Laura Stolland Sorcha MahonyLast November, the Prime Minister announcedthat the nation’s well-being was the ultimatetest of policy. Afterwards, a number of officialspondered with us whether this would lead toa real change in the emphasis of policy, orwhether it was just another ministerial speech.In this article, we ask what the implicationswould be for educational practice, policy andaccountability if policy really were to becomewell-being focused.Delivery not aspirationAt first sight the implications for educationpolicy and practice are less radical than theyare for economic policy. The present and futurewell-being of pupils is better established as anobjective for education than are comparableobjectives for the economy, and GDP growthdominates economic policy in a way that is notthe case for education policy (despite the bestefforts of Lord Browne). The Education andInspections Act 2006 places an explicit duty onschools to promote well-being, 1 understood inline with the Children Act 2004. The Every ChildMatters initiative emphasised physical, mental,emotional, social and economic well-being, aswell as protection, enjoyment and achievement.According to the DfE, concern for the well-beingof children in the UK is ‘reflected in Governmentpolicy, which is placing increasing emphasis notjust on educational achievement, but also on thewider well-being of the child, both in and out ofschool’. 2 Of course, many teachers have alwaysseen their role as helping their pupils to flourish,and this sentiment lies at the heart of seriousattempts to use well-being and its measurementto guide policy.But of course aspiration and reality are wideapart. A UNICEF study showed that the UKscored 21st out of 21 developed countries forchildren’s well-being. 3 In particular, it showedthat the UK scored 17th for educational wellbeing,a domain covering objective measures ofeducational achievement and participation. Astudy by the Child Poverty Action Group andresearchers at the University of York also foundthat young people in the UK scored low forwell-being: they ranked 24th out of 29 Europeancountries for overall well-being, and 22nd outof 27 countries for educational well-being –also understood and measured objectively forattainment and participation. 4 The OECD’sProgramme for International Student Assessmenthas shown that educational attainment rankingsof UK pupils in the core areas of reading, mathsand science have been falling for the last decade. 5At the same time, activities outside the corecurriculum such as music and sport, which helpdevelop the skills needed for flourishing as achild an adult, are all too often marginalised.And the UNICEF study showed that youngpeople’s educational well-being, understood andmeasured subjectively, is also a cause for concern:the UK ranked 15th out of 21 OECD countries onmeasures of young people’s feelings about, andexperiences of, school.This cannot be attributed only to the educationsystem of course. Many other factors, from familylife to access to green spaces, influence whether achild flourishes and will grow into an adult whoflourishes.In short, what matters is not the aspirationbut the delivery, and not simply delivery in theeducation system but delivery across a range ofpolicy areas that impact on children. If makingwell-being the ultimate test of policy ends upmaking a difference, it will be because it hasstimulated new political pressures. These inturn will have led to policies and accountabilitystructures that deliver aspirations more effectivelyand universally than they do now. The trade-offswill be different, and the objective of ‘flourishingchildren’ will do better than it does now in thecompetition of priorities. We might even be ableto turn the aspiration that every child shouldflourish into a right. 6What it means to flourishThis all depends on a shared understandingof what it means to flourish, and what26 | www.compassonline.org.uk