Posted by Site Administrator at 23/05/2011 12:03:18
It’s been a back to the future sort of week.
First the former chair of the WJEC declared that the Welsh Bac is a piece of ‘nonsense’, to the uncomprehending annoyance of the pupils, parents, teachers and universities who think it is an entirely welcome development. Then we heard a former senior figure in the schools inspectorate declare that league tables are the way forward and that teachers, parents, local authorities and unions are grimly united in their determination to prevent any improvement in the Welsh education system.
Others were quick to hear the noise of a bandwagon clattering by. So we’ve had noises(off) to the right of us andnoises(off)to the left of us every day since.
All of which adds up to a fight, rather than a fix.And surely it’s the fix we want?
We know a lot about the education system in Wales. We know we’ve got the best teachers and leaders ever. (The inspectors say so. The Minister says so. I would hazard a guess that pupils and parents, despite inevitable differences of opinion on occasion, know so too). We know too that standards and results are going up every year.
We’ve also got disappointing PISA scores, a significant challenge to drive up literacy and numeracy rates, an obstinately persistent and damaging link between poverty and low attainment, crumbling school buildings and a funding gap.
And that needs fixing. It needs fixing by parents, teachers, school leaders, governors, local authorities, the Welsh Government, the inspectorate, the unions. In this, if nothing else, we really are all in it together.
And to do it we need to use data about school performance to get everyone to aim to be the top performer; we need to make it possible for teachers to be freed to share what they do best; we need every single stakeholder to support that improvement in word and deed. And we need the resources to make it work.
And you’d be hard pressed to find anyone involved in education in Wales who’d disagree with that.
What we don’t need is the intervention of the ‘it-was-all-so-much-better-when-I-was-in-charge’ brigade whose remarks only serve to demonise and demoralise the thousands of teachers and leaders who daily put their energy, commitment and passion into educating the young people of Wales. It is not as if those who spend more time talking than doing (amongstwhose number I freely count myself) are queuing up to take up the challenge of standing up to be counted in front of a classroom of children.
