Lord Jim Knight: Creating a new vision and purpose for schools Pt.1

Lord Jim Knight - 10 April, 2024

ArborFest

Category : Blog

Lord Jim Knight: Creating a new vision and purpose for schools Pt.1

We are living in a year that the world is holding more elections than ever before. Four billion people across the globe will go to the polls this year. My prediction is that here in the UK, our election will see a change of government. If this should happen, let’s begin by considering what might be in the in-tray should Bridget Phillipson end up being Secretary of State for Education in Sanctuary Buildings, where I spent three glorious years as Schools Minister. 

As we all have, Bridget has been talking about school attendance. We have an unprecedented crisis in children’s mental health and wellbeing, the same with school staff. That feeds into the retention and recruitment issues in the workforce. I imagine this will be first and foremost on her mind. 

We’ve got schools literally crumbling. We have issues at both early years, particularly around workforce, and then the 16 to 19 pathways where T levels feel overburdensome, where apprenticeship take-up is really challenging. And some universities may well go out of business before we even get to a general election. The adult skills and productivity crisis that the nation faces is something Bridget will have to worry about before she has a chance to think about anything long-term. 

–

What could change look like?

–

So there are some questions around whether you stick with what we’re doing or whether you change. How do we avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater? I’m really cognisant of the conversations that I regularly have with teachers, and the answer is both. There’s a desperate need for change, but also the sense that some can’t cope with any more change at all. 

So, instead, a lot of what I ask myself is what could we stop doing? 

Something that has to change is the toxicity around Ofsted. I chaired an inquiry into the future of school inspections and this is what we heard back from the teaching workforce. The single word judgement, the terrible events around the death of Ruth Perry. If we’re serious about teacher retention, then having a system that inculcates a culture of fear in our system is something that we have to change, and change urgently. I would advocate that we need to put much more emphasis on governance, particularly MAT governance, as being the first line of defence around teacher quality, and one that can be part of generating a more positive, supportive culture, rather than one of fear. 

I was talking to Andreas Sleicher, Director of Education for the OECD, and he used the phrase “the cost of mistrust.” I think we can liberate huge amounts of time and money if we don’t manmark teachers all the time. Instead, we should lean into their professionalism and continue to support through professional development in a rapidly changing environment. 

Related to this is data transparency. We should lean into the potential of data and AI to give us new insights, accountability and regulation. We should move from inspecting inputs to challenging outcomes.

–

–

What about long-term?

That might be the short-term, and whilst that’s a lot to think about, what about some of the bigger things that are going on in education? It comes down to the question, what is school for? And what will it look like?

Multiple and longer careers: The 100-Year Life by Andrew Scott and Lynda Gratton worked on the idea that children born today are much more likely to live into the next century and have a 60-year working life, therefore cycling through multiple careers. That’s the world we’re preparing our children for now. 

Societal change: And then we’ve got the opportunity of technology, perhaps meaning that we can be more productive. It might mean that we could afford a universal, basic income. It might mean that we could afford a four day week.

Green jobs: Thirdly, the other big change that has to happen is we have to move to a more sustainable economy. We have to nurture green skills around the notion that every job will have to be a green job if we’re going to stop exploiting the world’s resources. And yet, at the moment, in our curriculum, there’s some room for it in Science and Geography. But I’m not persuaded that we are equipping and empowering our young people with the tools and the mindset to make the change personally, to lead the change in and beyond their communities. 

Tech evolution: I’m really excited about the potential of artificial intelligence to augment us, but I’m terrified if all of the data is held by just a few people. The fact that Elon Musk owns so much of the world’s sentiment data through X, and so much of the world’s transportation data through Tesla, and so much of the world’s communication data through his satellite company that owns more than half the satellites orbiting the planet, that’s pretty terrifying in terms of that monopolistic position that he has in terms of the data and ability to then train the tech the way that he wants it. 

–

Big technology changes come along periodically, cause social pain and then they deliver prosperity. I would anticipate that we’re going to go through a slightly painful period before we move into a more prosperous period. But I am hopeful that we will realise the opportunity and work out how to build the safeguards.

This all ties back into the fundamental question of what school is really for. Is it really for a knowledge rich-curriculum or is it preparing children for a future in a rapidly changing world?

–

Read Part 2 of Jim’s talk here.