Education should mean more than élitism and exam passes

THE special series relating to education has revealed a highly complex situation, numerous opinions but a common desire to improve.

The piece by Bette Chambers (Yorkshire Post, September 26) to stop changing education by the use of facts, fashions, politics and marketing and replace by the development, evaluation and dissemination of sound research and what works with children is well justified.

John Roberts rightly points out (Yorkshire Post, September 30) that social mobility will not be achieved by tinkering with university admissions or changing the strictures of schools but by identifying the support every child needs from the outset of their education – and making sure there are resources available for that individual to fulfil their potential.

For those schools helping deprived and emotionally unstable students in far greater numbers than they should be, the support of other agencies is vital. Co-operation with the medical, social workers, police and especially parents is vital and extremely sensitive and time-consuming. The ultimate success is that each child is motivated to want to learn and co-operate with various people to do so. In my experience the key to success was with quality parents who developed skills and even changed habits to help their child.

Gervase Phinn (Yorkshire Post, October 1) emphasises the importance of parents regarding their aspiration for their children and providing standards for learning how to live – the key lessons in life – but his experiences in Ireland also include the political and religious intolerance which existed over centuries. These differences are now being resolved but perhaps illustrate a deep problem within our society. In our multi-racial society, there are many groups who are each following separate beliefs or different interpretations of the same belief.

If education is to mean anything at all it should involve learning the truth about ourselves as individuals and our attitude and tolerance towards others – a far more important issue than passing exams where the ability to manipulate language to confuse or observe truth is often classed as clever.

At a speech to a school gathering in East Anglia recently, David Cameron championed free schools as “having the power to change lives”. He was in favour of élitism in schools – “education doesn’t just give people the tools to make a good living – it gives them the character to live a good life – to be good citizens”. Really? What about the expenses scandal, the relationship with the Murdoch Press, the influence of pressure lobbyists from big business – the tobacco, alcohol producers, land owners and developers etc – the context in which the education debate is taking place. Elitism has dominated our country for centuries and see where we are now.

There is much excellent work being done in our schools but insufficient resources being made available to address those young people broken in mind and spirit and too much being expected of the professions and volunteers working in this area.