The nation needs an education system that inspires and motivates children and gives them the learning they need and deserve to reach their potential. This means providing a curriculum for practical and professional learning in addition to theoretical study.
This need for change has never been so urgent. It is not the fault of an individual, a school or even a political party, but the simple fact that the world has changed - and our education system has not changed fast enough. In fact, it is largely based on a system that was developed over a century ago. a factory manufacturing model where children are placed on a learning conveyor, sorted, packaged and tagged according to their so-called intelligence.
However, there is no excuse today for such a comprehensive, unified education system that does not enable all children to thrive in their own way. We must realize that young people are individuals with different talents and dreams. Therefore, not all children learn the same way. We need to move towards a system of mass adjustment based on a strong common core of essential skills and knowledge, enabling young people to develop their own special talents and aspirations.
We need to help young people find out what they enjoy and what they are good at - and who they want to be in life. And we have to encourage and support teachers and schools to respond to these different needs. Young people will learn if they see learning as important, meaningful and worthwhile.
A crucial topic for the recession
Revolution in education is a particularly important issue in the context of the current economic climate. Young people leaving full-time education next summer will be in the toughest recruitment market in years. The current obsolete education system is not optimally exploiting this country's most valuable natural resource - its next generation.
Britain requires people with passion, know-how, initiative, creativity, resilience and self-knowledge. People who can get on with others and know when to listen and when to lead. These skills and abilities can not be acquired in class alone. They come from "practical learning" - learning by doing things for the practice, working with experts and connecting theory with practice.
Since Edge published its first "Call to Action" in April, inviting everyone from education professionals, MPs and opinion leaders to parents and youth to help us create change for a mass movement, the response from all areas has been extremely positive. Practical and professional learning is no longer a secondary issue, no longer an option for the children of others.
Reforbes, in touch with tomorrow
Six steps to change
Edge's Six-step Manifesto demonstrates how governments across the UK can reform the education system to better serve the needs of all young people and employers.
The six steps to be changed are:
1. A broad curriculum up to the age of 14 with opportunities to develop life skills and experience a range of future options. Life skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, and entrepreneurship should be explicitly communicated and evaluated through hands-on activities related to academic disciplines and professional fields. There should be a new focus on direct experience with future options, including visits to workplaces, colleges and universities, and direct listening to people who have already made career and learning decisions.
2. SATS replaces by an individual profile of the achievements, abilities and abilities used by students, parents and teachers to select a path to 14. To make decisions, parents and students need to understand a student's strengths and aspirations. The school-grown profile would help students, parents, and teachers to discuss the next steps.
3. At the age of 14, not only should all students maintain a broad curriculum, including English, math and science, but also choose a nature trail adapted to their interests and abilities, with a different balance between theoretical and practical learning. For some, the path will be largely academic and theoretical; For many, it will be a mixture of theory and practice that combines new knowledge and ability with the world. and for some, practical learning takes center stage. The emphasis will be on the breadth and openness of options for young people while at the same time pursuing their interest in depth.
4. Traineeship and vocational students are taught in colleges or specialized institutions and by appropriately experienced staff. This motivates the students and gives them excellent vocational training. There will be many more specialized institutions whose nature is determined locally. VET teachers should be adequately trained and educated, and receive the same pay and conditions as teachers in academic disciplines.
5. At the age of 16, students have the choice of specializing in their path, changing course, or taking up employment. For example, engineering students could specialize in electrical engineering. Some students may leave full-time education and start an apprenticeship.
6. From the age of 18, students have the opportunity to study at a study-level competence center recognized by employers. This would improve the status of vocational learning, provide clear paths of development and at the same time improve the employability of students.
All practical and professional courses should reflect the demands of the modern workplace, be officially endorsed by employers and be developed under their guidance - as well as supported by current experts. Students of such courses should spend at least 10% of their studies in the workplace - d. H. Eight weeks over two years. During this time they would have a study program and would be guided and supported by a trained mentor in the workplace.
The "Six Steps to Change Manifesto" aims to eradicate the current academic bias and the caustic gap between academic and professional learning. It sets out a way to ensure higher quality options that combine theory and practice, and that are viewed by all as credible alternatives to a first-rate academic path.
Amendments
Will these changes happen? I think they will. Our current system has reached a point where yields are slowing down, when we have tried most of the mechanisms. from more money over goals with corresponding incentives and public disgrace to new types of qualifications and a thousand and one new "initiative". It is hard to imagine that we will suddenly change education unless we return to the basic principle that people learn when they enjoy it and recognize its relevance.
We need a new approach, a new paradigm. This becomes very clear when we compare ourselves with other countries. Great Britain has some great strengths that we must not lose, especially in terms of first-class academic learning. Our greatest weakness, however, is our ability to transform diversity into hierarchy. Our system is largely based on the misguided belief that one form of intelligence is in some ways more important (or better) than another.
Fortunately, I think that the necessary changes are already beginning.
The signs of spring are all over us:
• Skills Commission's bipartisan Inspiration and Aspiration report recognizes the need for a whole new set of careers information, advice and guidance - for example, to ensure that people have access to sites where they have access to different websites Inform training routes and use forums Discuss careers with people who have experienced them.
• An important campaign for new, well-known employers to help young people find more meaningful, relevant and inspiring work experiences is in the planning stage.
• The growing interest in "employability skills", the piloting of explicit lessons in positive psychology and the emergence of schools and colleges that build learning on core competencies and skills and involve companies in the broadest sense in all aspects of learning. The examples range from the Open Minds and HTI Go for It RSA schools to corporate academies and colleges such as Sheffield City College.
• The departure from rigorous SAT testing and related goals and the interest in achieving a more balanced scorecard for achievement.
• The development of an important new way of learning in the form of diplomas, the success of young apprentices, and the rapid growth of practical and professional qualifications in schools.
• Entirely new types of institutions with a commitment to more hands-on learning, offered by appropriately experienced teachers such as the Madeley Academy (a Thomas Telford School) and the Studio Schools in the right facilities.
• The growing interest in a new and more practice-oriented education and the challenge of the existing dividing lines between school, FE and university teacher training - a new study of the competence commission on this topic begins.
• The revival of apprenticeship.
• Founding Accounts (where they have been developed with employers), new initiatives between universities and employers, including the validation of Vocational Higher Education.
The seeds of change sprout - but they do not grow automatically. For them to thrive, they must be recognized and promoted. They need the support of the nation; from parents to teens to MPs and the business community.
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