Education Change

The 1989 education reform ‘Tomorrow’s Schools’ needs to be seen in a historical context. Education structures and delivery mechanisms do not arise in a vacuum. Over time forces build up - perceived or unarticulated needs, ideological drives, technological developments - to erupt into big structural changes. This change is not constant; moments of acceleration are preceded and followed by relative stability.

What education system would one design if one started with a blank slate - no, a clear whiteboard; no, not even that, an interactive computer linked to an international network? There is less choice than we realise. Education follows wider forces and trends. A minor example, until recently our education terms followed the lactation cycle of the cow as well as summer shearing and harvesting.

At the macro-level, from the Renaissance students sat at the feet of the masters, the great lawyer, the great prioress, the great scholar, or learnt their trade from a master craftsman - the apprentice model of education.

After the Industrial Revolution, a factory-type processing of knowledge developed, not just in schools but in universities as well. Throughout the industrialised world a system of compulsory schooling was introduced. Students were graded by age as well as ability and increasingly were taught by teachers specially trained for the task. Systems of inspection were introduced to ensure national standards. The bureaucracies and the structures which developed reflect that origin, as well as the state paternalism of the 20th century which was a response to its excesses.

Now we have an Information Revolution, mind-boggling in its collapse of distance. In my life-time the warehouse of knowledge has expanded with a rapidity that in one sense is frightening, in another exhilirating. Computers and telecommunications not only transform our ideas of distance - at the click of a button educators and students can access information from Tokyo or London, and vice versa - but also our ideas of learning. Education cannot remain in a time-warp unaware of this roller-coaster ride.

We are now in a different era. Teachers, especially primary, know this. They design programmes to meet the individual needs of the children. Whole-class teaching at this level is now not so common. Group teaching is just normal while teachers set - often collaboratively - individual pupils tasks they then work through. However, self-generating learning is a skill rather exhausting to instil. Ask any parent. It is one of the reasons why teachers complain of stress and overload.