11.12.2003
Nothing short of a transformation is needed to tackle the unacceptable level of under-achievement by up to 40% of young people, and the growing gap between their future life chances and those of their peers.
The country has many excellent teachers, but the capability of the teaching workforce can be radically improved so as to enable educational achievement truly to flourish.
Resources at all levels in our system can and must be used to much greater effect.
These are the findings of the Follow-Up Group of the National Commission on Education in a publication examining developments in the ten years since the Commission’s influential report Learning to Succeed was published in 1993.
The new publication is entitled Learning to Succeed: The Next Decade. In this, authors, including the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Brighton Sir David Watson, contribute chapters on issues likely to be of major concern in the future.
In his chapter David Watson considers higher education: a new world? "Above all, the new world of higher education will be about partnership," he says and concludes:
"Looking forward over the next ten years, all the signs are that the future well-being of the country will require further expansion and development of a high-quality, accessible and responsive system of higher education.
"This leads directly to four principal policy prescriptions:
- public funding needs to be assured at least to the levels invested by our major competitors;
- higher education needs to respond to real student demand, including demand for subjects, modes and styles of study to which the HE institutions are currently proving slow to react;
- to expect a "graduate contribution" to the funding of the system is both equitable and desirable, but the current arrangements need serious overhaul and there is clear evidence that "top-up" and "differential" fees are not yet the answer;
- overcoming the class polarisation endemic in post-compulsory education will require concerted effort across the educational range (schools, FE colleges, HE institutions and the training programmes of employers)."
Other contributors include Richard Layard, former Director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics; Martin Johnson, Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research; Guy Claxton, Visiting Professor at the University of Bristol; John Furlong, Director of Oxford University’s Department of Educational Studies and David Curtis, Jenny Crighton and Manjit Benning of the Audit Commission.
Massive economic challenges, far-reaching changes in work and living patterns, rising expectations, and tight constraints on resources all lead the Commission’s Follow-Up Group to conclude that there will be a high premium on wisdom in future decision-making.
Learning to Succeed: The Next Decade will be launched at the House of Lords on 16 December. The Rt. Hon Charles Clarke MP, Secretary of State for Education and Skills, and Mr Barry Sheerman MP, Chairman of the Select Committee on Education and Skills, will speak at the occasion.
The publication will be officially launched at a reception from 6.00pm to 7.30pm at the House of Lords on Tuesday 16 December.
Copies of the publication may be purchased at £5 per copy including packing and posting (discounts for multiple copies) from the Education Research Centre, University of Brighton, Mayfield House, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9PH; telephone: 01273 644533; email: education.research@brighton.ac.uk
The National Commission on Education’s Follow-Up Group comprises Lord Walton of Detchant (Chairman), Mr John Raisman CBE (Deputy Chairman), Sir John Cassels CB (Director), Mr Chris Hayes, Professor Margaret Maden, Lord Moser KCB, CBE, Ms Jenny Shackleton and Professor Sir David Watson.
The NCE Follow-Up Group gratefully acknowledges the financial and other support that it has received from the Learning and Skills Council (both the National LSC and the London Central LSC), the Nuffield Foundation and the Institute for Public Policy Research. It is also indebted to the University of Brighton for undertaking the publication of the volume.
Enquiries may be made to the Project Team of the Follow-Up Group, at 34 Princess Road, Primrose Hill, London NW1 8JL; telephone: 020 7586 2737; fax: 020 7586 6152; email: tenyearson@btinternet.com
Contact: Marketing and Communications, University of Brighton, 01273 643022
